Christmas Oratorio: Parts 1 – 3

Václav Luks conducts the original Christmas hit - JS Bach's Christmas Oratorio. A rare opportunity to hear all six parts performed over two nights. This is Bach at his most joyous in a work that celebrates the power of love.

There could be no better way to end the year in which we’ve been celebrating the 40th anniversary of our formation in 1986 than with a work that has been a mainstay. The Christmas Oratorio was first performed as six cantatas, each focusing on a different aspect of the Christmas story, across six feast days in different churches around Leipzig. Our first evening opens with the bells ringing out for Christmas Day then cuts to the angels’ encouragement to the shepherds that there’s no need to be afraid. The Evangelist’s narration interweaves with dramatic choruses, chorales and reflective arias from the cast of soloists.

Václav Luks, the founder of Prague’s Collegium 1704, returns following critically acclaimed collaborations in Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the Southbank Centre and in the pit at Glyndebourne Opera. He completes the programme with a Credo from a mass by fellow Czech, Jan Dismas Zelenka. Bach almost certainly knew Zelenka and held his music in high regard for its inventive harmony and what Luks describes as its “extraordinary power”.

Performers:
Sofia Kirwan-Baez soprano
Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano
Guy Cutting Evangelist (tenor)
Florian Störtz bass-baritone
Choir of the Age of Enlightenment
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Václav Luks conductor

Programme:
ZELENKA Credo from Missa Omnium Santorum
JS BACH Weihnachtsoratorium (Parts 1 – 3)