Bach Collegium San Diego Offers Local Premiere Of Bach's Christmas Oratorio

Offering something different for the holidays this year, Bach Collegium San Diego presents the local premiere of J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) on December 14 and 15, 2018. This is a chance to hear this rarely performed work on period instruments in the type of historically informed performance that has made Bach Collegium San Diego the West Coast's preeminent early music performance ensemble.

Composed near the end of Bach's career, the Christmas Oratorio is the longest and most complex of three large-scale choral works he composed for the feasts of Christmas, Ascension, and Easter. The Christmas Oratorio carries the listener through the Christmas narrative as seen through the eyes of the angels, shepherds, and Magi, and includes some of the composer's most sublime music, performed by an orchestra of 26 (including three trumpets plus timpani) and 18 chorus and soloists.

"Perhaps nothing conveys the sheer joy of Christmas better than Bach's Christmas Oratorio, composed for Leipzig's Christmas season of 1734," says Music Director Ruben Valenzuela. "Opening with an exhilarating timpani fanfare, it progresses to a euphoric crescendo leading to the outburst, 'Jauchzet, frohlocket!', leaving no doubt that the festival of Christmas has arrived. Don't miss BCSD's first foray into this inimitable work as presented by our supreme lineup of musicians."

J. S. Bach: CHRISTMAS ORATORIO BWV 248

Friday, December 14, 20187:00 PM - 9:30 PMFirst United Methodist Church, Mission Valley

Saturday, December 15, 20187:00 PM - 9:30 PMSts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, Cardiff by-the-Sea

SOLOISTSMelanie Russell, SopranoJanelle DeStefano, Mezzo-SopranoJay Carter, CountertenorJason McStoots, TenorPaul Max Tipton, Baritone

Tickets: $20-$70www.bachcollegiumsd.org

ABOUT Bach Collegium San DiegoBach Collegium San Diego engages audiences with accessible, historically informed performances and educational programs featuring repertoire from the Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical eras. The ensemble was founded in 2003 by Music Director Ruben Valenzuela to diversify the musical offerings of the San Diego community. Bach Collegium San Diego has presented a wide variety of historically significant works, including many San Diego and Southern California premieres. Works are performed using the instruments, instrumentation, and techniques of the period in which they were written. Bach Collegium San Diego engages this country's finest musicians working in the field of early music, bringing world-class historically informed performance to the greater San Diego area through main stage concerts and admission-free lunchtime performances. Through its excellent programming and exemplary performances, Bach Collegium San Diego is considered one of the premier early music ensembles on the West Coast and is quickly becoming one of this country's foremost ensembles for early music.

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