Die kunstenaars / The artistsDirigent / Conductor: Neels Boonzaaier
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Kaartjies / Tickets:Tickets at R60 are available from choir members, at the door, via e-mail or by phone : Annelies Alkema 012-343-5557, 082-644-6554 or Godfrey Gibson 012-361-2281. You can also order tickets on the website. Or leave a message on our answering service: 0881 242 212. N.B. There are no reservations |
The 'Christmas Oratorio' is one of Bach's best-loved works. He composed it before his 50th birthday, having already completed the St John and St Matthew Passions several years before. As much as Handel's Messiah is an Easter tradition in many English-speaking countries, so is the Weihnachtsoratorium a Christmas tradition throughout much of Europe.
Setting the Nativity to music has a long history, and Bach borrowed from much of the existing work to create a new approach.
It was begun during December 1734 as a cycle of six cantatas for the six religious holidays over the Christmas season: the three Christmas feast days, the Feast of the Circumcision (January 1st), the Sunday after New Year and the Epiphany. Bach created them as a unified work with similar tonal structures and the textual narrative of the Nativity taken from the Gospels; from Luke's Gospel for cantatas 1 to 4, and the Epiphany from Matthew's Gospel for cantatas 5 and 6.
Because of the difference in context and emotion, the Christmas Oratorio is a much more of a meditative work than the Passions, which, by the nature of the subject and dialogue, are much more dramatic. (more...)
We hope you will enjoy this precursor to the Christmas season.
Tickets: R60 per person