3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Follow This Star!, November 13, 2007
This review is from: Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium (Audio CD)
There is no better conductor of Bach's cantatas than Ton Koopman. The hallmark of his skill is the sense the listener gets that he puts his whole heart and mind into each segment, focusing its special musical mood and finding exactly the tempo and dynamic to express that mood. In the cantatas assembled to create the Christmas Oratorio, there are many such miniature dramas of tempo and affect, but some well-known conductors have failed to differentiate them, resulting in a long earnest piety rather than a celebration of sound. Koopman's orchestra is wonderfully transparent and light-hearted by comparison; the clarity and independence of intrumental parts seems fresh and inventive, no matter how often the listener has heard the same notes from other bands. Koopman has chosen women to sing the soprano and alto arias, with very expressive results from the latter, and Pregardien is surely the most consistently masterful Bach tenor on the scene.
Frankly, although I'm not Christian, I find the Bach Oratorio more in tune with my feelings about the Christian mysteries than Handel's Messiah, and this is the music I always turn on to feel the joy of mid-winter renewal.
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