Bach: Christmas Oratorio (3CD)

The last recording by a pioneer of the Bach revival on record, newly remastered and issued internationally on CD for the first time. New editorial notes by Bach specialist, Nicholas Anderson, giving context and authoritative detail on the Christmas Oratorio, the career of Fritz Lehmann and this recording project.

At Fritz Lehmann’s untimely death on 20 March 1956, during a traditional Good Friday performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Munich, his recording of the Christmas Oratorio was left incomplete. Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv division quickly made good the incomplete project by assigning Arndt the task of recording the last two cantatas which he did in June and September 1956.

TRACK LIST

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248
Christmas Oratorio

Helmut Krebs, tenor
Gunthild Weber, soprano l
Sieglinde Wagner, contralto
Heinz Rehfuss, bass
Berliner Motettenchor
RIAS Kammerchor
Berliner Philharmoniker
Fritz Lehmann, conductor (Parts I–IV)
Günther Arndt, conductor (Parts V–VI)