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Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248

Martin Lattke (Evangelist), Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Wiebke Lehmkuhl (alto), Wolfram Lattke (tenor), Konstantin Wolff (bass)

Leipzig Gewandhausorchester & Dresdner Kammerchor, Riccardo Chailly

Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248

Awards:

Chailly's exhilaration is irresistable

BBC Music Magazine, January 20113 out of 5 stars

More reviews

Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248

Martin Lattke (Evangelist), Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Wiebke Lehmkuhl (alto), Wolfram Lattke (tenor), Konstantin Wolff (bass)

Leipzig Gewandhausorchester & Dresdner Kammerchor, Riccardo Chailly

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Awards:

Chailly's exhilaration is irresistable

BBC Music Magazine, January 20113 out of 5 stars

More reviews

About

Riccardo Chailly conducts Leipzig’s famous Gewandhausorchester in Johann Sebastian Bach’s glorious collection of cantatas, otherwise known as the Christmas Oratorio. An outstanding vocal cast includes Martin Lattke as the evangelist, acclaimed English soprano Carolyn Sampson and the voices of the Dresdner Kammerchor.

The six parts which make up the Christmas Oratorio tell the biblical story from Christ's birth to the adoration of the shepherds and the Magi, and the flight in to Egypt to escape Herod's slaughter of the infants. Having first conducted the Gewandhausorchester in 1986, Riccardo Chailly's association with Leipzig is now only one year less than Bach’s. Played on modern instruments, Chailly’s Bach beautifully demonstrates that vivid, stylistically aware performance is not the exclusive preserve of period instrument ensembles. This is the third of Bach's large-scale masterpieces recorded by the Gewandhausorchester under Riccardo Chailly and released on Decca and follows critical acclaim for The Brandenburg Concertos, released in January 2010 (4782191) and the St. Matthew Passion, released in March 2010 (4782194).

Contents and tracklist

Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248
Work length2:11:48
No.1 Chorus: "Jauchzet, frohlocket"
Track length6:41
No.2 Evangelist: "Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit"
Track length1:12
No.3 Rezitativ (Alt): "Nun wird mein liebster Bräutigam"
Track length0:49
No.4 Aria (Alto): " Bereite dich, Zion"
Track length5:09
No.5 Choral: "Wie soll ich dich empfangen"
Track length1:11
No.6 Evangelist: "Und sie gebar ihren ersten Sohn"
Track length0:21
No.7 Chorale: "Er ist auf Erden kommen arm", Recitativ (Bass): Wer will die Liebe recht erhöhn"
Track length2:30
No.8 Aria (Baß): "Großer Herr, o starker König"
Track length4:20
No.9 Choral: "Ach mein herzliebes Jesulein"
Track length1:17
No.10 Sinfonia
Track length4:38
No.11 Evangelist: "Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegend"
Track length0:36
No.12 Chorale: "Brich an, o schönes Morgenlicht"
Track length1:02
No.13 Evangelist, Engel: "Und der Engel sprach zu Ihnen"
Track length0:42
No.14 Rezitativ (Baß): "Was Gott dem Abraham Verheißen"
Track length0:38
No.15 Aria (Tenor): "Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet"
Track length3:15
No.16 Evangelist: "Und das habt zum Zeichen"
Track length0:17
No.17 Chorale: "Schaut hin, dort liegt im finstern Stall"
Track length0:40
No.18 Rezitativ (Baß): "So geht denn hin, ihr Hirten, geht"
Track length0:46
No.19 Aria (Alto): "Schlafe, mein Liebster, geniesse der Ruh"
Track length8:32
No.20 Evangelist: "Und alsbald war da bei dem Engel"
Track length0:10
No.21 Chor: "Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe"
Track length2:16
No.22 Rezitativ (Baß): "So recht, ihr Engel, jauchzt und singet"
Track length0:23
No.23 Chorale: "Wir singen dir in deinem Heer"
Track length1:13
No.24 Chor: "Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen"
Track length1:36
No.25 Evangelist: "Und da die Engel von ihnen gen Himmel fuhren"
Track length0:07
No.26 Chor: "Lasset uns nun gehen gen Bethlehem"
Track length0:35
No.27 Rezitativ (Baß): "Er hat sein Volk getröst"
Track length0:34
No.28 Choral: "Dies hat er alles uns getan"
Track length0:45
No.29 Duett (Sopran, Baß): "Herr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen"
Track length6:53
No.30 Evangelist: "Und sie kamen eilend"
Track length1:04
No.31 Aria (Alt): "Schließe, mein Herze, dies selige Wunder"
Track length4:46
No.32 Recitativ (Alt): "Ja, ja, mein Herz soll es bewahren"
Track length0:22
No.33 Choral: "Ich will dich mit Fleiß bewahren"
Track length0:48
No.34 Evangelist: "Und die Hirten kehrten wieder um"
Track length0:22
No.35 Choral: "Seid froh dieweil"
Track length0:45
No.24 Chor (da capo): "Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen"
Track length1:43
No.36 Chor: "Fallt mit Danken, fallt mit Loben"
Track length4:54
No.37 Evangelist: "Und da acht Tage um waren"
Track length0:30
No.38 Rezitativ (Baß): "Immanuel, o süßes Wort" Arioso (Chor-Sopran, Baß): "Jesu, du mein liebstes Leben"-"Komm ich will dich mit Lust umfassen"
Track length2:09
No.39 Aria (Soprano, Echo-soprano): "Flösst, mein Heiland, flösst dein Namen"
Track length4:55
No.40 Rezitativ (Baß): "Wohlan, dein Name soll allein" Arioso (Chor-Sopran): "Jesu mein Freud und Wonne"
Track length1:20
No.41 Aria (Tenor): "Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben"
Track length4:16
No.42 Choral: "Jesus richte mein Beginnen"
Track length1:53
No.43 Chor: "Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen"
Track length5:54
No.44 Evangelist: "Da Jesu geboren war zu Bethlehem"
Track length0:21
No.45 Chor: "Wo ist der neugeborne König der Juden?" - Rezitativ (Alt): "Sucht ihn in meiner Brust"
Track length1:43
No.46 Choral: "Dein Glanz all Finsternis verzehrt"
Track length0:53
No.47 Aria (Bass): "Erleucht auch meine finstre Sinnen"
Track length3:54
No.48 Evangelist: "Da das der König Herodes hörte"
Track length0:09
No.49 Rezitativ (Alt): "Warum wollt ihr erschrecken?"
Track length0:31
No.50 Evangelist: "Und ließ versammeln alle Hohepriester"
Track length1:18
No.51 Terzetto (Soprano, Alto, Tenor): "Ach, wann wird die Zeit erscheinen?"
Track length5:14
No.52 Rezitativ (Alt): "Mein Liebster herrschet schon"
Track length0:27
No.53 Choral: "Zwar ist solche Herzensstube"
Track length0:58
No.54 Chor: "Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben"
Track length4:24
No.55 Evangelist: "Da berief Herodes die Weisen heimlich" - Herodes: "Ziehet hin und forschet fleißig"
Track length0:46
No.56 Rezitativ (Sopran): "Du Falscher, suche nur den Herrn zu fällen"
Track length0:54
No.57 Aria (Sopran): "Nur ein Wink von seinen Händen"
Track length3:28
No.58 Evangelist: "Als sie nun den König gehöret hatten"
Track length1:08
No.59 Chorale: "Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier"
Track length1:21
No.60 Evangelist: "Und Gott befahl ihnen im Traum"
Track length0:20
No.61 Rezitativ (Tenor): "So geht! Genug, mein Schatz geht nicht von hier"
Track length1:37
No.62 Aria (Tenor): "Nun mögt ihr stolzen Feinde schrecken"
Track length3:42
No.63 Rezitativ (Sopran, Alt, Tenor, Baß): "Was will der Hölle Schrecken nun?"
Track length0:43
No.64 Choral: "Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen"
Track length3:08

Spotlight on this release

  • Christmas Releases

    29th Nov 2010by Chris O'Reilly

    Tudor Music for Advent and Christmas from Stile Antico, Russian Orthodox Vespers from the Don Cossacks Choir, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio from Riccardo Chailly, and a new collection of carols by John Rutter.

    Classical Recording of the Week

Awards and reviews

  • Presto Recording of the Week
    29th November 2010

January 2011

Chailly's exhilaration is irresistable
3 out of 5 stars

January 2011

If you like your Bach thick-set but with historically informed inflections, seek it out.

January 2011

The first chorus gets things off to the most exciting start imaginable...he's very quick, but nothing sounds rushed or garbled - the articulation of the orchestra is stunningly rhythmic and precise, with a lovely sense of shape and of direction - as is the choral singing...This is an exceptional Christmas Oratorio and it becomes one of the front-runners in a crowded field.

29th November 2010

it is not far short of revelatory. He proves beyond any doubt that vivid, stylistically aware performance is not at all the exclusive preserve of period instrument ensembles. In this recording the orchestra are superb and the huge tonal richness which the choir and orchestra reach in the climaxes is incredibly powerful.

2nd January 2011

His trumpets are spectacular and he brings a rare sense of drama and rediscovery to this glorious music.
4 out of 5 stars

25th November 2010

a wonderfully flexible and dramatically vivid account, constantly illuminated by the obbligatos from the Gewandhaus wind...Chailly manages to combine the rhythmic lightness of a period-instrument performance with the tonal richness of a traditional orchestra. It is by far the most successful of his Bach forays to date.
4 out of 5 stars

17th December 2010

[Chailly] eschews the current trend towards period instrumentation, with no perceptible loss of authenticity. It's marvellously recorded, the solo vocalists sustaining poise and clarity against the full onslaught of choir and orchestra, while the fulsome brass brings a dazzling, burnished lustre to the performance.
4 out of 5 stars

5th December 2010

Any discerning music fan will be thrilled to receive Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Decca), a superb new recording by Riccardo Chailly
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