Bach & Charpentier: Baroque Christmas

Folk-like French noëls – secular Christmas carols, technically forbidden in sacred music by the Council of Trent – form the basis of Charpentier’s unique midnight mass. An irresistible rendition of laughter-in-music opens one of Bach’s most festive cantatas, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, written for Christmas Day 1725 in Leipzig. And Schwingt freudig euch empor, composed for the first Sunday in Advent, looks forward to the birth of Christ with with dancing choruses and one of Bach's most intimate, touching arias, Auch mit gedämpften, schwachen Stimmen.

The soloists joining the Monteverdi Choir are four rising stars of the international baroque music scene, and the brilliant conductor Christophe Rousset brings Gallic verve to this exquisite music.

“The harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset is widely considered a leader in the contemporary revival of French Baroque music.”

Interlude