Ich Will Dich)

“Jan Willem de Vriend oversees a joyful account of Bach's festive music with light-footed responses to dance rhythms. I can whole heartedly commend this issue for its expressive warmth, its disciplined choral singing and its natural declamation.”

"Rejoice, rejoice, up, praise the days!" - What Bach presents here cannot be summed up in criteria of masterful orchestral treatment and skilful text adaptation alone. The music-making of this opening chorus, unleashed by pithy kettledrum beats, directly grips the heart, belly and not least the legs of the listeners before any rational reflection, who want to jump up spontaneously from pews and desk chairs and do not have the slightest chance of escaping the contagious jubilation.

The recommending word for Philip Pickett and the New London Consort's recording of J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio is balance. There is a most satisfying balance on every level of this recording-between singers, between singers and instrumentalists, and between instrumentalists. Pickett mediates between the extreme options for choral forces-one per part at one extreme and a mammoth Romantic-sized choir at the other-by placing several singers on each choral part and drawing his soloists from that choir. Listening to the chorales and chorus movements of Bach's monumental creation will reveal the wisdom of Pickett's decision.

This isn't an oratorio in the Handelian sense, but a series of cantatas for various days from Christmas to Epiphany. Bach's music is loaded with treats: an echo aria for soprano and oboe; a "pastoral" sinfonia; bravura arias for tenor with flute and bass with trumpet; a giddy soprano-bass duet; a transporting lullaby for alto.

The recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, conducted by René Jacobs, was one of the discographic highlights of the year at its 1997 release. Critics around the world praised the "sophisticated interpretation", the "splendid cast", the "expressiveness of the evangelist" as well as the "compelling acting performance of the singers".