This Christmas we can warm ourselves during Bach ad Infinitum and the podcast Bach & Co. with the Christmas Oratorio, the Magnificat and the Christmas cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio brings light into the darkness, and this underexposed and exuberant work that was written by Bach in 1734 and 1735 is an important link to his later works.
In Bach ad Infinitum you can listen to two different performances of the Christmas Oratorio by the J.S. Bach Foundation conducted by Rudolf Lutz and by Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.
In the Bach & Co podcast we look at the background to the Christmas Oratorio. In five episodes we discuss various aspects of this work, and we provide a complete run-through and interpretation of all six cantatas.
Christmas broadcasts Bach ad Infinitum:
- Monday 16 December to Friday 20 December 2024, 13.00-14.00 CET
- Repeats: Monday 23 December to Friday 27 December 2024, 13.00-14.00 CET
- Monday 30 December 2024 to Friday 3 January 2025, 13.00-14.00 CET
- Repeats: Monday 6 January 2025 to Friday 10 January 2025, 13.00-14.00 CET
Listen to Bach & Co (from episode 70) via your favourite podcast platform.
Illustration: Giotto di Bodone, Birth of Jesus (1303-1305), Padua: Scrovegni chapel
