This season, the NFM begins the time of waiting for Christmas with a truly Bachian grandeur: music-making that transcends the Polish-German border. Young singers from the NFM Boys’ Choir and the Wuppertaler Kurrende – an ensemble from North Rhine-Westphalia – will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas masterpiece. The Christmas Oratorio will be performed with the participation of four soloists and the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, under the baton of Lukas Baumann.
The three oratorios of the Leipzig cantor were intended for the greatest feasts of the Lutheran liturgical year. The Christmas one is the first and the most expansive of them. It consists of six parts, of which as many as four will be heard during the December event at the NFM. This does not mean the concert will be brief: each movement is in fact a separate cantata written for a particular feast of the season. The last one, Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben, was composed for the Feast of the Epiphany.
What distinguishes the works comprising the oratorio from ordinary examples of the genre are fragmentary biblical elements. Yet, as in every cantata, numerous forms are interwoven in the body of the composition: from chorales and choruses, through recitatives, to ariosos and arias. Bach varied the instrumentation throughout the cycle, while the anonymous librettist shaped the narrative around different Gospel events. Interestingly, when putting together the oratorio the composer reused material from his earlier secular cantatas – in his time, this practice, referred to as parody, was quite common.
The concert will be conducted by Lukas Baumann. This musician directs the choir from Wuppertal – already familiar to the NFM audience – and himself once belonged to the ensemble. The preparation of the NFM Boys’ Choir, which as part of cultural exchange will repeat the program in Germany, is entrusted to Małgorzata Podzielny.
Co-financed by the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation