Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium/Larsson, von Magnus, Prégardien, Martens, Koopman

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.com
When this recording was released in 1996, the words most often used to describe it were "luminous" and "radiant." The adjectives fit: the choir and orchestra have a glowing sound that makes the chorales in particular wondrous to hear. The most extroverted choruses and arias lack the extra measure of vigorous excitement of John Eliot Gardiner's performance, but Koopman's tender approach is beguiling. What's more, his male soloists are marvelous: bass Klaus Mertens is sensitive and energetic in equal measure; Christoph Prégardien manages the fearsome tenor arias easily and his singing of the Evangelist's recitatives strikes a fine balance between vocalism and narration. Lisa Larsson's soprano and Elisabeth von Magnus's contralto have a purity suggestive of the teenage boys for whom Bach wrote (though one sometimes hears a youthful fragility in the voices as well). Pointing out tiny flaws in performances as admirable as this one and those by Gardiner and Masaaki Suzuki can seem like quibbling, but all three are so good that those tiny flaws might be all one can use to choose between them. --Matthew Westphal

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-11-13 rating:
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There is no better conductor of Bach's cantatas than Ton Koopman. The hallmark of his skill is the sense the listener gets that he puts his whole heart and mind into each segment, focusing its special musical mood and finding exactly the tempo and dynamic to express that mood. In the cantatas assembled to create the Christmas Oratorio, there are many such miniature dramas of tempo and affect, but some well-known conductors have failed to differentiate them, resulting in a long earnest piety rather than a celebration of sound. Koopman's orchestra is wonderfully transparent and light-hearted by comparison; the clarity and independence of intrumental parts seems fresh and inventive, no matter how often the listener has heard the same notes from other bands. Koopman has chosen women to sing the soprano and alto arias, with very expressive results from the latter, and Pregardien is surely the most consistently masterful Bach tenor on the scene.
Frankly, although I'm not Christian, I find the Bach Oratorio more in tune with my feelings about the Christian mysteries than Handel's Messiah, and this is the music I always turn on to feel the joy of mid-winter renewal.

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