Sigiswald Kuijken worked for 10 years on his cycle of Johann Sebastian Bach cantatas following the liturgical year, an effort which can be heard on the series of 19 albums published on Accent. Now, Kuijken returns with a new release. This recording includes the work of three great masters dedicated to the theme of Christmas: Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767). All three created a large number of cantatas for many occasions, each according to his own perspective and tradition. The Christmas cantatas were always of a special nature; the birth of Christ was celebrated everywhere- both in a solemn and festive setting and in a smaller circle- and if one listens carefully and considers the different approaches, one can virtually peer into the composer’s heart. Bach takes center stage in this new production, Buxtehude is its be-all and end-all and Telemann bridges in between two very different opuses.

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REVIEW:

Even in the early 18th century Christmas was a time to mix traditional music with newer, forward-looking sounds. I love Georg Philipp Telemann’s archaic-sounding cantata Ein Kindelein so löbelich, TWV 9:5, from around 1720, but sounding at least a century older, at least until an Amen that sprouts Baroque curlicues around the more severe contrapuntal sounds of the stile antico. This is virtuoso composition that plays with styles in a kind of Enlightenment Post-Modernism. J. S. Bach’s gorgeous cantata Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133, from 1724, is a perfect example of how the great composer turned music into sounds of pure joy. Kuijken and La Petite Bande provide a joyful interpretation of the theatrical intimacy in this music, as apt an illustration of the show-stopping, spot-lit miracle that was the Nativity as the great painting of Gerrit van Honthorst gracing the album cover.

– Music for Several Instruments