Bach - Weihnachts-Oratorium (Koopman) [1996]

Disc: 1
1. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage'
2. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit'
3. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Nun wird mein liebster Brautigam'
4. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Bereite dich, Zion, mit zartlichen Trieben'
5. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Wie soll ich dich empfangen'
6. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Und sie gebahr ihren ersten Sohn'
7. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Er ist auf Erden kommen arm'
8. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Grosser Herr, o starker Koening'
9. I - Erste Kantate - For The First Day Of The Nativity: 'Ach, mein herzliebes Jesulein!'
10. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: Sinfonia
11. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegend'
12. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Brich an, o schoenes Morgenlicht'
13. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Und der Engel sprach zu ihnen'
14. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Was Gott dem Abraham verheissen'
15. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet'
16. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Und das habt zum Zeichen'
17. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Schaut hin, dort liegt im finstern Stall'
18. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'So geht denn hin'
19. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Schlafe, mein Liebster'
20. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Und asbald war da bei dem Engel'
21. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Ehre sei Gott in der Hoehe'
22. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'So recht, ihr Engel, jauchzt und singet'
23. II - Zweite Kantate - For The Second Day Of The Nativity: 'Wir singen dir in deinem Heer'
24. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Herrscher des Himmels, erhoere das Lallen'
25. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Und da die Engel von ihnen gen Himmel Fuhren'
26. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Lasset uns nun gehen gen Bethlehem'
27. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Er hat sein Volk getroest't'
28. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Dies hat er alles uns getan'
29. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Herrr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen'
30. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Und sie kamen eilend'
31. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Schliesse, mein Herze'
32. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Ja, ja, mein Herz'
33. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Ich will dich mit Fleiss bewahren'
34. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Und die Hirten kehrten wieder um'
35. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Seid froh, dieweil'
36. III - Dritte Kantate - For The Third Day Of The Nativity: 'Herrscher des Himmels, erhoere das Lallen'

Disc: 2
1. Weihnacts-Oratorium: IV - Vierte Kantate - For The Feast Of The Circumcision Of Christ: Fallt mit Danken, fallt mit Loben
2. Weihnacts-Oratorium: IV - Vierte Kantate - For The Feast Of The Circumcision Of Christ: Recitativo: Und da acht Tage um waren
3. Weihnacts-Oratorium: IV - Vierte Kantate - For The Feast Of The Circumcision Of Christ: Recitativo: Immanuel, o suesses Wort!
4. Weihnacts-Oratorium: IV - Vierte Kantate - For The Feast Of The Circumcision Of Christ: Aria: Flosst, mein Heiland, flosst dein Namen
5. Weihnacts-Oratorium: IV - Vierte Kantate - For The Feast Of The Circumcision Of Christ: Recitativo: Wohlan, dein Name soll allein
6. Weihnacts-Oratorium: IV - Vierte Kantate - For The Feast Of The Circumcision Of Christ: Aria: Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben
7. Weihnacts-Oratorium: IV - Vierte Kantate - For The Feast Of The Circumcision Of Christ: Jesus richte mein Beginnen
8. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen
9. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Recitativo: Da Jesus geboren war zu Bethlehem
10. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Recitativo: Wo ist der neugeborne Koenig der Juden?
11. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Dein Glanz all' Finsternis verzehrt
12. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Aria: Erleucht auch meine finstre Sinnen
13. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Recitativo: Da das der Konig Herodes horte
14. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Recitativo accompagnato: Warum wollt ihr erschrekken?
15. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Recitativo: Und liess versammeln alle Hohenpriester
16. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Aria Terzetto: Ach, wann wird die Zeit erscheinen
17. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Recitativo: Mein Liebster herrschet schon
18. Weihnacts-Oratorium: V - Funfte Kantate - For The Sunday After The Circumcision: Zwar ist solche Herzensstube
19. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben
20. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Recitativo: Da berief Herodes die Weisen heimlich
21. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Recitativo: Du Falscher, suche nur den Herrn zu fallen
22. VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Aria: Nur ein Wink von seinen Handen
23. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Recitativo: Als sie nun den Konig gehoret hatten
24. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Ich steh' an deiner Krippen hier
25. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Recitativo: Und Gott befahl ihnen im Traum
26. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Recitativo: So geht! Genug, mein Schatz
27. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Aria: Nun mogt ihr stolzen Feinde schrecken
28. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Recitativo: Wass will der Holle Schrecken nun
29. Weihnacts-Oratorium: VI - Sechste Kantate - For Epiphany: Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen

Lisa Larsson – soprano
Elisabeth von Magnus – mezzo-soprano
Christoph Prégardien – tenor
Klaus Merten – baritone
Amsterdam Baroque Choir
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Ton Koopman – conductor

When this recording was released in 1996, the words most often used to describe it were "luminous" and "radiant." The adjectives fit: the choir and orchestra have a glowing sound that makes the chorales in particular wondrous to hear. The most extroverted choruses and arias lack the extra measure of vigorous excitement of John Eliot Gardiner's performance, but Koopman's tender approach is beguiling. What's more, his male soloists are marvelous: bass Klaus Mertens is sensitive and energetic in equal measure; Christoph Prégardien manages the fearsome tenor arias easily and his singing of the Evangelist's recitatives strikes a fine balance between vocalism and narration. Lisa Larsson's soprano and Elisabeth von Magnus's contralto have a purity suggestive of the teenage boys for whom Bach wrote (though one sometimes hears a youthful fragility in the voices as well). Pointing out tiny flaws in performances as admirable as this one and those by Gardiner and Masaaki Suzuki can seem like quibbling, but all three are so good that those tiny flaws might be all one can use to choose between them. ---Matthew Westphal, amazon.com

Bach wrote these six cantatas, a continuous narrative of the nativity, for performance in Leipzig from Christmas to Epiphany 1734-5. No opening could be more dramatic: solo timpani answered by two flutes, then oboes, and a surge of martial trumpets through a cascade of strings before the choral shout ‘Rejoice, exult!’. Yet, astonishingly, much of this inspired music was borrowed: those timpani reflect the opening of a secular cantata, ‘Resound, ye drums!’. The Christmas story is told in recitative by the Evangelist, Prégardien, so vividly expressive that he virtually precludes the need for translation. Lutheran chorales, a second textual layer, are fresh and free of sanctimonious weight. Bach selects the most vivid colours for the newly written text of choruses and arias, an amazing kaleidoscope of sound. Koopman’s choir never sacrifices verve to its technical polish and his instrumental forces are outstanding: the trumpet of ‘Grosser Herr’ delightfully understated, reflecting the unimportance of earthly pomp; immaculate horns; intonation spot on from buzzing period oboes. Tempi are alert, though I’d sometimes have preferred more dramatic urgency from one movement to the next. Prégardien doubles as lyrical commentator as well as narrator. Larsson revels in Bach’s wit – the disguised metre of ‘Nur ein Wink’, the unpredictable oboe/soprano echoes of ‘Flösst mein Heiland’. Mertens’s fluent duetting with violins is breathtaking while von Magnus, cast in effect if not in name as the Virgin Mary, contrasts with a more vibrant tone. At home, I traditionally listen to these Cantatas on their respective days throughout Christmas. After Gardiner’s dramatic vision (Archiv) and Christophers’s polish (Collins), this year I’ll turn to Koopman’s sincerity, enthusiasm and energy. ---BBC Music Magazine

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