J.S.Bach -Christmas oratorio-Weihnachts Oratorium

J S Bach - Christmas Oratorium (Weihnachts Oratorium) 3 CD

Director Helmuth Rilling


According to the booklet, this recording began on Christmas Day, 1999. Far from giving the impression that the musicians have been dragged away from their roasts with attendant trimmings, however, Rilling inspires his forces to a compulsively alert rendering of the Christmas Oratorio.

This cycle of six cantatas (for Christmas Day, the next two days, Feast of the Circumcision, the Sunday after New Year and Feast of Epiphany) was written for the Christmas period of 1734-5. It has long been a Bachian favourite and so Rilling enters a full field, at the head of which lie Koopman (Erato 0620 14635-2), Suzuki (BIS 941/2) and Gardiner (Archiv 423 232-2). All boast fine soloists. Rilling eschews star names, giving the impression of a truly concerted effort, working together towards one vision. Whilst working on this review, I was fortunate enough to hear Gardiner's latest Bach Cantatas release (Nos. 94, 105 and 168 on Archiv 463 590-2). Rilling loses nothing in freshness and candour to Gardiner in his understanding of Bach.

From the very first bars there is a celebratory urgency to Rilling's account. Jauchzet, frohlocket positively bursts with vitality and shoes off the strengths of the recording quality: clean and with a true sense of perspective.

The soprano Sibylla Rubens is pure and fully equipped to negotiate the many florid passages. Ingeborg Danz is every semiquaver her equal: the extended aria Schlafe mein Liebster from the second Cantata shows off all her qualities. The light, high tenor of James Taylor suits the Evangelist well. To sample the bass Müller-Bachmann, try his duet in the third Cantata with the soprano (Herr, dein Mittleid, dein Erbarmen). This is the most extended movement of that Cantata, yet seems to last not a millisecond too long.

A word of praise must go to the obbligati contributions from the orchestra throughout the set. Perhaps the horns of the fourth Cantata deserve special mention for coping so stylishly with their cruelly high parts.

An excellent set. My copy credited the wrong cantatas to discs two and three, a potentially confusing situation Hänssler would do well to rectify if widespread. A minor ergonomic quibble: this is a set that will bring much pleasure and which deserves repeated listening.
Colin Clarke

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