What would the advent and Christmas time be for music lovers without a Christmas Oratory?
Not only the fans of classical music find that the festive sound is an integral part of the quiet time of each year. And whenever the word “Christmas Oratory” is spoken, everybody knows immediately who is the composer: of course, the Leipzig Thomas cantor Johann Sebastian Bach! And there is definitely no other option. Or is there?
On Monday, December, 5th, 2016, at the Sendling Himmelfahrtskirche, you can find the proof that another baroque master, too, wrote a really great piece when composing his Christmas Oratory. It is absolutely great music that goes straight to the heart of the audience and creates a festive Christmas atmosphere almost by itself: we are talking the Christmas Oratory “Mache dich auf, werde Licht (Go Ahead, Become Light)”, a work written by Carl Heinrich Graun, who was impresario of Frederic the Great. After having sung – and recorded in cooperation with the Bayerischer Rundfunk as a CD – Graun’s Passion Oratorio “Der Tod Jesu/The Death of Jesus” in 2014, the Arcis-Vocalisten have now worked on the Christmas masterpiece composed by the impresario of “Old Frederic”.
For Professor Thomas Gropper, the choir director of the Arcis-Vocalisten, it is the differences between this work and the ever-present Bach Oratorio that make the work on it particularly attractive:
“Even the libretto is structured totally different from how Bach did it in his Christmas Oratorio – Graun took only very few of the original sentences from the Gospel of Luke, instead making heavy use of free contemplation and dialogues”, says Gropper. “And there is much more of the “gallant” concept that will be setting new trend in Graun’s music than in that of the Thomas Cantor. Said concept being the already quite obviously emerging more sensitive style that became generally accepted at the time the work was composed in 1735”.
The masterpiece was only re-discovered in 1999 and is characterized by a skilful change between melodic and challengingly counterpoint-oriented choirs and sensitively voice-caressing arias that have been given an extremely colourful orchestral accompaniment: festive string and trumpet sounds on top of the Christmas Atmosphere. Well, it is a somewhat different Christmas Oratorio…
Source: ARCIS-VOCALISTEN
(Translated by EG)
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