Christmas Oratorio gets us in the mood

Unlike Handel’s Messiah, whose texts inconveniently embrace both Christ’s Nativity and Passion, Bach’s work consists of six cantatas originally intended to be performed on the six feast days between Christmas Day and Epiphany.

There is no good reason to perform the work we know as the Christmas Oratorio in a single sitting, and Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music sensibly opted for just four of the cantatas, parts 1, 3, 5 and 6 (though oddly omitting the most familiar Christmas music of Part 2).

The Academy is about to take the work on a Spanish tour with its year-old choir, which already sounds in fine fettle. Under Egarr’s spirited direction the singers negotiated the taxing polyphonic lines with ease, with wonderfully expressive phrasing in the chorales.

Egarr put his obbligato players through their paces, too, but they rose triumphantly to the task, trumpeter David Staff dispatching the virtuoso lines of his two big numbers with particular aplomb. One of those numbers is the bass solo Grosser Herr, delivered ably by Christopher Purves. Often to be found in colourful roles on the operatic stage, Purves here showed he has a stylish way with a Baroque line. He had a brief opportunity later, in a single line of recitative, to suggest the evil scheming of Herod, an opportunity he seized with relish.

James Gilchrist brought his inimitably expressive voice to the largely narrative role of the tenor, while Lorna Anderson and Barbara Kozelj were the admirable soprano and mezzo soloists. Choir and orchestra sailed exuberantly through the final festive chorus, sending us out into the cold December night fortified against the rigours of the coming fortnight.

Academy Of Ancient Music: J S Bach's Christmas Oratorio
Cadogan Hall
Sloane Terrace, SW1X 9DQ