Christmas Oratorio: Parts 4 – 6

Reach the triumphant heights of Bach’s sublime work with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Václav Luks. This is Bach at his most joyous in a work that celebrates the power of love. Grab the chance to hear all six parts performed over two nights. 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. Tonight’s concert begins 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 to the OAE 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 concert 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’.