Tuesday 18 December 2018

Bach's jubilant celebration of Christmas with orchestra, choir and brilliant soloists.

Bach's life-affirming Christmas Oratorio is for many a dear part of the Christmas tradition. The oratorio consists of six cantatas composed by Bach for the Christmas celebrations in Leipzig in 1734. At that time, the cantatas were performed over six public holidays, while at tonight's concert we will hear the first three.

The work opens with a festive movement for choir and orchestra, with trumpets and timpani in important roles in celebration of Jesus' birth. The second cantata, which is devoted to the meeting between heaven and earth, is preceded by a pastoral. In the third cantata, the shepherds rush to Bethlehem and Bach again presents the festive instruments trumpet and timpani.

It is a pleasure to be able to present three Norwegian singers, who in addition to Norway's leading mezzo-soprano in this repertoire, Marianne Beate Kielland, are the young talents Vigdis Unsgård and Halvor Melien.

Italian Alessandro De Marchi specializes in the Baroque repertoire and conducts the evening's concert.

The concerts are organized with generous support from the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Foundation.