Christmas Oratorio: Parts 4-6

The concluding instalment of JS Bach's Christmas Oratorio conducted by Václav Luks. 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 the OAE celebrates the 40th anniversary of its 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. We begin on the New Year’s Day Feast before joining the Magi on their journey to Bethlehem to honour the baby Jesus. 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 opens the programme with a motet 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 Statio quadruplexpro Processione Theophorica
JS BACH Weihnachtsoratorium (Parts 4 – 6)