An Alternative to “Messiah”? There’s Always Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio”

In Wednesday’s (12/10) Seattle Times, Thomas May writes, “For some, Handel’s ‘Messiah’ remains a cherished ritual. For others, it has become so predictable as to feel almost unavoidable—a seasonal monument polished smooth by repetition. This season, the Seattle Bach Festival is offering a different way into the Christmas story—one that trades ‘Messiah’’s grand sweep for a more kaleidoscopic, scene-by-scene celebration of the Nativity: Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio.’ Like ‘Messiah,’ Bach’s work is an oratorio … but it is built from six shorter, semi-independent pieces known as cantatas, each originally written for a different day of the Christmas season. Founded this year by baroque violinist Tekla Cunningham, the Seattle Bach Festival closes its first season with the first three cantatas of Bach’s six-part cycle—one of the major, long-neglected works she envisioned as central to the festival from the beginning. The forces are expansive by Bach’s standards, with a brightly colored ensemble that includes four oboes, three trumpets, strings, timpani and organ or harpsichord…. If ‘Messiah’ has become the default musical monument of the season, Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ remains a connoisseur’s alternative in the United States, its difference audible from the first bars.”