Not a day without Bach – NRC

You hear it buzzing more often: a happy person prefers to live “not a daywithout Bach”, so certainly not a holiday. Thus wins in the wake of the_Matthew Passion_ Bach’s Christmas music is also gaining ground. No Easterwithout passion? So no Christmas without it Christmas Oratorio.

The Nederlands Kamerkoor started its Christmas tradition in 2012 and sincethen annually performs all six parts – together two and a half hours of music.Bach never explicitly intended that we listen to them as a whole: originallythey are separate cantatas for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Third Day (1734),and January 1, 2 and 6 (1735), or New Year’s Day, the Sunday after New Year’sDay and Epiphany (6 January). But once you get used to hearing the parts as awhole, you are lost. This year the Netherlands Bach Society is only performingthe first three cantatas – dramaturgically defensible and certainly alsoeasier to digest. But how you miss the echo aria with its devout exclamationsof “yes yes!” (happy with the savior) and “no no” (afraid of him), the sublimeswinging choirs Ehre sei dir Gott gesungen and Herr, get used to thatfalsche Feinde and the intimate Epiphany coral An deiner Krippe.

Shepherd oboe and angel flute

One annually Christmas Oratorio listening to it is as much a season-markingpleasure as any year Matthew. You get to know the music better. And as itgoes, it always raises new questions. Why does Bach use percussion and brassinstruments in his Christmas music, but not in his passions? Because birth isa celebration, and death is not: with the Resurrection on Easter the trumpetsare heard again. And why does Bach allow the oboes to take center stage insome arias and the traverso or a trumpet in others? Because oboes assist theearthly (shepherds, Mary), the heavenly and the trumpet the royal whistle. Seethe opening chorus Jauchzet, frohlocket! which brings instant Christmascheer with timpani blows and jubilant trumpets: banish complaining, raisemerry cheer.

The Nederlands Kamerkoor – on tour through eight halls – performs it_Christmas Oratorio_ annually with a different baroque orchestra. This year itis the French Les Talens Lyriques by Christophe Rousset. Like his youngercompatriot Raphaël Pichon – current hero of baroque music – Rousset is notafraid to look for liveliness in extremely high tempos. For the strings, theopening chorus even explores the limits of dexterity, but it’s amazing: theseplayers are so virtuoso that they follow Rousset without losing clarity. Thesame applies to the Chamber Choir, which strings lithe and radiant fugue tochorale. In this way, the impression of the first choir remains intact for sixcantatas: fast, clean, clear and delicate, this performance is choral andinstrumental, with careful textual accents and contrasts and four almost idealsoloists. Special mention deserves the basso continuo group, which rolls outbass lines beautifully fluently and yet firmly strung: an attraction for theear.

Also read this interview with Christophe Rousset: ‘ We can learn a lot fromthe baroque’

Farewell to Shunske Sato

The disadvantage of such a virtuoso, moving performance with top soloists in alarge concert hall like TivoliVredenburg: you miss an intimate, tranquilChristmas feeling. At the Netherlands Bach Society – ten times in eight cities– that feeling was fully present on Thursday in the Grote Kerk in Naarden(bell chimes, radiant musicians, mulled wine smell).

Distinguished by artistic director/violinist Shunske Sato, this performance isalso numerically more intimate: a much smaller choir (beautiful in thechorales) than the Chamber Choir, with fewer ‘soloistic’ instrumentalists inthe orchestra and (compared to Rousset’s quartet) chamber music vocalsoloists. Sato effectively pumps energy and joy into the notes, but leavescontrasts in the text somewhat underexposed.

The chosen setup with two other short works as an introduction to Bach’scantatas does not work optimally: Bach’s magnificent opening chorus has toroll out organically from a chorus by GF Stölzel, but that deprives thetimpani beats of their momentum. Memorably beautiful again: Sato’s honeyedsolo violin in the aria Schliesse, mein herze , warmly sung by BernadettNagy. What Sorry close is for the Matthew is Schliesse, mein herze forthe Christmas Oratorio. Don’t miss a year.

Classic

JS Bach, Christmas Oratorio.

Dutch. Chamber choir/ Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset.Heard: 12/12, Tiv.Vredenburg, Utrecht. Tour until 22/12. Radio 4: 21/12, 7 pm.Including: nederlandskamerkoor.nl