Bach, J.S.: Christmas Oratorio

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Cat No: 8554508

Release Date: 12 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943450826

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BACH, J.S.

Description
Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750) Christmas Oratorio,BWV 248 (Highlights)The career of Johann Sebastian Bach, the most illustrious of a prolificmusical family, falls neatly into three unequal parts. Born in 1685 inEisenach, from the age of ten Bach lived and studied music with his elderbrother in Ohrdruf after the death of both his parents. After a series ofappointments as organist and briefly as a court musician, he became, in 1708,court organist and chamber musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, the elderof the two brothers who jointly ruled the city. In 1714 he was promoted to theposition of Konzertmeister to the Duke, but in 1717, after a briefperiod of imprisonment for his temerity in seeking to leave the Duke's service,he abandoned Weimar to become Court Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold ofAnhalt-Cothen, a position he held until 1723. From then until his death in 1750he lived in Leipzig, where he was Thomaskantor, with responsibility forthe music of the five principal city churches, in 1729 assuming direction ofthe university collegium musicum, founded by Telemann in 1702. At Weimar Bachhad been principally employed as an organist, and his compositions of theperiod include a considerable amount written for the instrument on which he wasrecognised as a virtuoso performer. At Cothen, where Pietist traditionsdominated the court, he had no church duties, and was responsible rather forcourt music. The period brought the composition of a number of instrumentalworks. The final 27 years of Bach's life brought a variety of preoccupations,and while his official employment necessitated the provision of church music hewas able, among other things, to provide music for the university collegiummusicum and to write or re-arrange a number of important works for thekeyboard.Bach's Christmas Oratorio consists of six cantatas, the first ofwhich was first performed at Christmas in 1734 at the town church of Leipzig,the Nikolaikirche, in the morning, with an afternoon performance at theTomaskirche. The second part was performed on 26th December, in the morning atthe Tomaskirche and in the afternoon at the Nikolaikirche, while the third wasperformed only at the Nikolaikirche on 27th December. The fourth part wasperformed first on 1st January 1735, the Feast of the Circumcision, at theTomaskirche and in the afternoon at the Nikolaikirche, while the fifth for thefirst Sunday of the New Year, 2nd January, was only performed in the morning atthe Nikolaikirche. The sixth part was given two performances on 6th January,the Feast of the Epiphany, first at the Tomaskirche and then at the largerNikolaikirche. Although the work makes considerable use of music originallycomposed for other purposes, the cycle was clearly conceived as a unified work,to which the elaboration of the first chorale at the end of the sixth partbears witness. The impression is enforced by choice of keys and formalstructure, in spite of the original intention of performance of each part on adifferen
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