Bach - Christmas Oratorio

Alongside the “Bach, a life in music” cycle, Paul Agnew conducts for the first time one of Johann Sebastian Bach's great cantatas for choir and orchestra: the Christmas Oratorio. The perfect way to experience the joy of Christmas in music, during the festive season!

Composed in Leipzig for the winter festivities of 1734-1735, the Christmas Oratorio is - despite its name - a set of six cantatas dedicated to various celebrations, spread out from December 25 to January 6 (day of the Epiphany). The German text, which served as the basis for the composition, draws from the New Testament to tell the story of Christ's Nativity, to which Bach adds a dramatic dimension through the arias and choruses he composes... using material from his own - mainly secular - works. In order to experience this piece as a whole, Paul Agnew brings together in this concert four of the six cantatas from the Christmas Oratorio. Drawing on his experience of this repertoire, with which he has become familiar since the beginning of his cycle “Bach, a life in music” in 2021, the Scottish conductor leads the choir and orchestra of Les Arts Florissants, as well as a host of soloists, on this new stage of his journey to the heart of the Bach “continent”, to bring this luminous work to life. An invitation to joy!

"To me, they have already conquered the Everest." (The Times UK, about the "J.S Bach: Early Cantatas" recording)