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Christmas Oratorio
Johann Sebastian Bach

Christmas Oratorio

Combattimento Consort Amsterdam

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: SACD + Book
Barcode: 9789087490089
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Catalog number: CC 76607
Releasedate: 01-11-06
  • Recieved a gold record (10.000 units sold) november 2008
  • First ever recording on SACD (5.1 multichannel)
  • Awarded performance by one of the best baroque ensembles from Amsterdam with internationally acknowledged soloists
  • A unique musical interpretation by international director Jan Willem de Vriend
  • Combattimento Consort is an important ensemble in the chamber music scene
  • CCA always brings fresh and original works to the stage
  • "One of the best recordings of this work ever made" Thiemo Wind, Telegraaf
Bach’s celebrated Christmas Oratorio forges a link between birth and deliverance: the birth of Christ is not only the birth of light, of innocence; this joyful event is equally characterized by suffering. In this respect the Christmas Oratorio is akin to the St. Matthew Passion and the St. John Passion. Guilt and innocence, suffering and deliverance are present from the moment a mother holds her child in her arms.

This book on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio lends credence to Jan Willem de Vriend’s musical interpretation of the work. It comprises an interview with De Vriend himself, carried out by the musicologist Frits de Haen, a short history of how the work came into being and an article on the liturgical significance of the six cantatas by the internationally renowned musicologist Robin A. Leaver.

The book is also replete with eight full-page photos, which explore the Mother & Child theme across the globe, taken by the photographer Eddy Posthuma de Boer.