Review Gloucestershire Echo 23/12/06

The 13 days of the festive season were brought that much closer with the performance of music by JS Bach at Christ Church, Cheltenham.In essence, the Christmas Oratorio consists of a cycle of six cantatas, each to be performed on a major feast day in the bleak mid-winter.

Bach put together the Christmas Oratorio for performance at Leipzig from Christmas Day 1734 to Epiphany 1735. Never afraid to recycle, the composer included some borrowings from this secular cantatas. The work is a long haul so the period-instrument Corelli Orchestra and Voice Ensemble gave four of the parts; in this concert, one, two, five and six.

The music was well-prepared with attention paid to orchestral and choral balance. From the harpsichord, Warwick Cole directed a performance that was historically informed, with spruce tempos in the faster numbers and sprung rhythms. Vocal lines were adorned with colourful wind obbligatos, the three trumpets standing and outstanding. The solos were taken by an excellent quartet of guest singers - tenor John Bowen, the Evangelist, Louise Tucker (alto), James Birchall (bass) and Evelyn Tubb, who spun her soprano into the heights of the church.

Candlelight enhanced the 19th century musical ambience.

Colin Burrow