Johann Sebastian Bach - Oratorio de Noel (Nikolaus Harnoncourt)

Information

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

• Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248

Christine Schäfer, soprano

Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano

Werner Güra, tenor

Gerald Finley, baritone

Christian Gerhaher, baritone

Arnold Schoenberg Choir

Concentus Musicus Wien

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

Date: 2007/2024

Label: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi

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Harnoncourt’s recording, taken from live performances in the Musikverein, succeeds in this regard with uncanny freshness and generosity. Without a hint of world-weariness, each movement builds on the experience of what has been heard before (a device encouraged by Bach in his emollient and atmospheric instrumentation, and the decisive connections between each cantata). Bachians who know Harnoncourt’s Passion recordings will recognise the distinctive southern European classical tradition which has been brought to bear on his recent Bach performances. Witness the soft-grained radiance and ease, whether Mass or opera-inspired, which eschews an inward-looking and parochial outlook. Indeed, Harnoncourt is unique in his decisively pictorial and luminous landscape (in the more perennial oratorio tradition), alongside a highly developed ear for charting the work with kaleidoscopic, if occasionally maverick character. The springy choruses are bright but warm, spacious and unhurried, and packed with cathartic and lyrical dialogues between instruments and voices. The arias are also consistently probing, with fine performances from Christine Schäfer (“Nur ein Wink” is irresistible) and Bernarda Fink, whose “Schlafe” lives up to expectations (though one perhaps questions whether the faster speeds of the ritornelli reveal some patching).