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 Monteverdi Choir's performances of the music of J.S. Bach are world-renowned, and the Choir is joined this December by four rising-stars soloists of the international baroque music scene. The acclaimed French baroque conductor Christophe Rousset makes his Monteverdi Choir debut, bringing Gallic verve to Charpentier's exquisite music.

"The Monteverdi Choir...proved its extraordinary class: an unearthly purity of intonation, unparalleled clarity of articulation, playful word-painting – all singing virtuosically, highly individually yet perfectly integrated into a soundscape of boundless dynamic range and brilliance."

Leipziger Volkszeiting (Bachfest Leipzig, June 2024)

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

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