Over 35 years after their legendary first recording of Bach’s famous Christmas Oratorio, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, announce their upcoming album featuring a new reading of the masterpiece. It was recorded at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in London on two evenings in December 2022.
The iconic work is divided into six cantatas, each based on a different biblical scene. “The range of his art, his imagination, and his creative response to different stimuli, is apparently endless. Although nearly 300 years have now passed since it was first heard, Bach’s work remains irresistible in its energy and inspiration,” says Gardiner.
Listen to a further pre-release track, the opening movement of the Oratorio entitled Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage. The full album will be released digitally, on CD and as a Blu-ray Disc on 25 October, in time to perfectly ring in the Christmas season.