Hereford Cathedral Choir present a concert performance of the ‘Christmas Oratorio’ by J S Bach on Saturday, January 27 at 7 pm.
The performance takes place by candlelight in the cathedral, conducted by Geraint Bowen. Guest soloists are Lucy Bowen, soprano, Ciara Hendricks, mezzo-soprano, James Oxley, tenor and Colin Campbell, bass, accompanied by the period-instrument orchestra Marches Baroque, led by Sharon Lindo.
The Christmas Oratorio consists of a set of six separate cantatas with instrumental accompaniment. They were written when Bach was Cantor at St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig, and were originally intended to be performed separately on different days, beginning on Christmas Day 1734 and ending on the Feast of the Epiphany 1735.
Church congregations in Leipzig would have regarded the six major feasts from Christmas Day to Epiphany as one integrated festival, so the six component parts form a complete and unified whole.
Geraint Bowen said: “It’s very exciting to be preparing the Christmas Oratorio with the cathedral choir once again. It combines some of Bach’s most festive and jubilant writing for choir and orchestra, complete with trumpets and kettledrums, with more intimate reflective numbers for the soloists.”
Tickets are available from the Hereford Cathedral website www.herefordcathedral.org; from the cathedral shop, tel 01432 374210, and at St John’s Door on the night.
Supported by the William A Cadbury Charitable Trust.
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