Volume 5
Rejoice!
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHThe greatest Baroque Composers:

Johann Sebastian Bach
- Christmas Oratorio (excerpts)

HELEN DONATH, soprano
MARJANA LIPOVSEK, contralto
EBERHARD BÜCHNER, tenor
ROBERT HOLL, bass
RUNDFUNKCHOR LEIPZIG
STAATSKAPELLE DRESDEN
conducted by PETER SCHREIER

CD 454 407-2 DDD
PHILIPS

- One thing was sure: Bach would open his Christmas Oratorio in a blaze of brilliance, with timpani and trumpets. And since he had little time to spend on the six cantatas that were to be performed in the services between Christmas and the beginning of January, he simply set new texts to some "joyful" works he had previously written. The choral first movement from a congratulatory cantata that, under the title "Sound, ye drums! Ring out, ye trumpets!", had constituted a hymn of praise to Princess Maria Josepha now received the text "Rejoice, Exult! Arise, glorify the days!" and became a jubilant chorus in honour of the heavenly Lord. Even if the "addressee" had changed, the basic feeling of jubilation remained the same, as did the layout of the verses, the word stress and the number of syllables. Most of the arias and choral scenes in the Christmas Oratorio are similarly "parodies." Bach would not have had a bad conscious on account of this recycling method, for it was quite usual in his day.