Joining the music of Bach to the winter holidays is a long and popular tradition with the Berkshire Bach Society and its audiences, with the annual performances of concerti at New Year’s. For the next two years, this will be supplemented by presentations of Bach’s great setting of the Christmas story, his so-called “Christmas Oratorio,” which will be presented in two parts over the next two seasons. The first installment takes place this year on Saturday, December 13, at the First Congregational Church in Great Barrington. The performance begins at 8 pm; reservations are available by calling 1-800-838-3006.
The conductor of these two performances will be the Berkshire Bach Singers’ director James Bagwell, and will constitute his final appearances in that capacity, as he moves on with a very busy and successful career. The cast will be headed by a quartet of notable singers associated with the Bard Conservatory: soprano Mary Bonhag, alto Kasia Sabej, tenor Rufus Müller, and bass Ron Loyd. They will be joined by a superb band of instrumentalists, including double-reed players Stephen Hammer, Alexandra Knoll, Judith Dansker, Tamar Wells, and Andrew Cordle, to help provide a properly rustic sound for the shepherds watching in their fields.
Following a recent appearance at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times critic wrote that Rufus Müller was "...easily the best tenor I have heard in a live Messiah." He is a leading Evangelist in Bach's Passions and his unique dramatic interpretation of this role has confirmed his status as one of the world's most sought-after performers. He gave the world premiere of Jonathan Miller's acclaimed production of the St Matthew Passion, which he also recorded for United and broadcast on BBC TV.
About the music, maestro Bagwell has provided the following information: “The Christmas Oratorio, aside from being of one Johann Sebastian Bach’s greatest choral masterworks, presents a number of interesting questions about what is known and what is speculation about this work. There is no question about the composition dates and the work’s first performance. The autograph score says that work was intended for the feast of Christmas in 1734-35 (Christmas Day to Epiphany; 25 December to 6 January). One can then assume that the score was composed in the months immediately following, and most of it during Advent, when cantatas were not performed in Leipzig, and Bach, as a result, enjoyed some rare free time.
“An interesting anomaly is the title of the work itself. Bach called the work an “oratorio,” but it really is a collection of six discrete cantatas. In fact each cantata was performed on separate days, and all are really “stand-alone” pieces, with their own internal structures. While one thinks of oratorios like Messiah and Israel in Egypt, which are meant to be heard in one evening, it was not uncommon especially in Germany to divide up Oratorios into several parts, which would be heard on separate occasions.”