J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio presents itself as a cycle of similarly structured individual works whose continuity rests on the Christmas narrative according to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, as well as on the recurrence of certain types of settings and the dramaturgy typical of Bach’s cantata oeuvre.
Our decision to dedicate one concert evening to each cantata highlights the distinctive nature of the Christmas Oratorio. Nevertheless, a concert performance of the entire work would have been equally possible, which proves once again the compositional genius of the Thomascantor. Indeed, there are likely only few works that are equally powerful whether performed as individual parts or as a whole….