Organization

Conductor

John Eliot Gardiner

Singer

Soprano

Hilary Cronin

Sopran

Alison Ponsford Hill

Countertenor

Hugh Cutting

contre-ténor

Tenor

Jonathan Hanley

Bass

Frederick Long

Christopher Webb

Dingle Yandell

Nick Pritchard

Evangelist

Orchestra

English Baroque Soloists

Others

Monteverdi Choir

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique

Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras

Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248 -  (Christmas Oratorio)

London

United Kingdom

St Martin-in-the-Fields

John Eliot Gardiner once said of Johann Sebastian Bach that "The range of his art, his imagination, and his creative response to different stimuli, is apparently endless." The works of this seminal figure of the Baroque are at the heart of the conductor's stylistically extremely diverse repertoire and in these live performances – filmed at two concerts in December 2022 – Gardiner performs the Christmas Oratorio with the ensembles he founded and spearheaded the modern revolution in Bach performance: the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists. Although nearly 300 years have now passed since it was first heard, Bach's work remains irresistible in its energy and inspiration.

Versailles

France

Château de Versailles

Chapelle royale

Milan

Italy

Teatro alla Scala

Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248 Bach, Johann Sebastian

Public

Christmas Oratorio

Approved

Weihnachts-Oratorium

The three Monteverdi ensembles – the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique – are a leading force on the inte...

​In December 2022, John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir performed Bach’s Christmas Oratorio across Europe for the first time since 2008.

Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)

Weihnachtsoratorium / Christmas Oratorio

Part 1: Am ersten Weihnachtsfeiertage / For the First Day of Christmas
Part 2: Am zweiten Weihnachtsfeiertage / For the Second Day of Christmas
Part 3: Am dritten Weihnachtsfeiertage / For the Third Day of Christmas
Part 4: Am Feste der Beschneidung Christi / For the Feast of the Circumcision
Part 5: Am Sonntage nach Neujahr / For the First Sunday in the New Year
Part 6: Am Fest der Erscheinung Christi / For the Feast of Epiphany

Bach conjures the joy of Christmas like no other composer in the opening chorus of his Christmas Oratorio: ‘Jauchzet, frohlocket!’ This collection of six cantatas, written for the festivities in Leipzig which started on Christmas Day 1734 and stretched into the first week of 1735, recount in sequence the Coming of Christ, the Nativity, the visit of the Shepherds, the adoration, the circumcision, and the visit of the Wise Men.

Bach’s dazzlingly intentive music recycles movements he had previously composed, mostly for secular cantatas, to bring to life both the Gospel narrative as well as humans’ personal response to it. Interspersed throughout the work are some of the most beautifully composed chorales Bach ever wrote.

John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir provided a chance to hear the complete work, which Bach clearly conceived as a coherent whole, in performances which ally the ensembles’ deep understanding of Bach’s music with the brilliance of a team of outstanding young soloists.

English

Christmas Oratorio by Bach, J. S., Fra (2022/2022), Dirigent John Eliot Gardiner, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy

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