Christmas is just around the corner

Camille Saint-Saëns was just 23 years old when he composed his »Oratorio de Noël«. It is hardly surprising that it was written at the same time as the young composer was working on arrangements of some of Bach’s cantatas for piano. Thus, the parallels with his famous ‘Christmas Oratorio’ are evident musically, and not merely because of the subtitle »Dans le style de Séb. Bach«. However, unlike Bach, the French composer has the Christmas story told by several evangelists and focuses exclusively on the Catholic liturgy. Alongside the gentle lullaby »Schlafe mein Liebster« from the »Christmas Oratorio«, two cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach are performed. 

The renaissance of Bach’s music is owed above all to its rediscovery by the young Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. »Every word calls for music, just as every verse is a different piece,« said Mendelssohn of the cantata »Vom Himmel hoch«. In »Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich«, he gives profound musical expression to humanity’s never-ending wish for peace, drawn from the ancient Gregorian chant »Da pacem Domine«.