Tafelmusik: A rare presentation of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

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With the Christmas season fast approaching, that holiday staple, Handel’s Messiah, is being performed everywhere. Tafelmusik is no exception, and its singalong version is a perennial holiday tradition in Toronto. This year, however, Tafelmusik will also present a much less ubiquitous seasonal work: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.

Composed in 1734, the Oratorio tells the story of the nativity, from the birth of Jesus through to the arrival of the Three Wise Men. It comprises a series of jubilant choruses, tender chorales and introspective solo arias, with recitatives sung by a tenor Evangelist to provide the narrative. Bach uses chorales as the pillars of the Oratorio’s architecture, both musically and spiritually. These hymns of the Lutheran Church held special meaning for—and were sung from memory by—the congregation during worship throughout the church year.

The Oratorio consists of six cantatas, each to be performed at one of the six services held during the church’s celebration of the Twelve Nights of Christmas. Because the length of the entire piece makes it impossible to perform in one night, this concert will omit Part 4, while Parts 5 and 6 will be combined.

Now in its 43rd season, the 23-voice Tafelmusik Chamber Choir will be conducted by its founding director, Ivars Taurins, and accompanied by the acclaimed Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Soprano Hélène Brunet, mezzo Cecilia Duarte and baritone Jesse Blumberg are making their Tafelmusik debuts. Renowned English tenor Charles Daniels will be lending his “technically brilliant, impassioned, and lyrically supple” voice (BBC Music Magazine) to the role of the Evangelist. Taurins notes that part of the work’s appeal is based on the way “Bach’s music in this oratorio elicits a very direct, human response. There is a clarity of purpose in the way he sets the texts to music.”

Ivars Taurins Photo : Dahlia Katz

Taurins says that while Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is not a holiday mainstay in the English-speaking world, it has always been popular in continental Europe, especially in its northern parts. “To people of German heritage, the piece is the true harbinger of the Christmas season. This music is deeply personal, imbued with a wonderful radiance and clarity that speaks of hope and joy. (Its) sentiments are as relevant today as they were when the opening strains of Bach’s oratorio were first heard in Leipzig in the winter of 1734.”

The Oratorio offers a celebratory yet contemplative spirit to the holiday season. It has not been performed by Tafelmusik since 2015, and is not to be missed.