For this year’s Christmas concert we bring together three contrasted seasonal vocal works written by, or attributed to, J.S. Bach. He probably wrote his short Mass in A major, BWV234, for a Christmas service at Leipzig in the 1740s, making it suitable for the season by using flutes to represent the Shepherds and a recurring rocking motif to protray the rocking of the crib. ‘Ehre sei dir, Gott’, BWV248/5, is the fifth of the six cantatas that make up Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, written for performance during the 1734-5 Christmas season. It deals with the Wise Men’s visit to Bethlehem and begins with one fo Bach’s most joyful choruses.

‘Uns ist ein Kind geboren’ used to be attributed to Bach (as his Cantata BWV142) but clearly written by an older contemporary such as Johann Kuhnau, his predecessor at Leipzig. It is a charming work, evoking the scene at the manger using pairs of recorders and oboes to represent the Shepherds and the Wise Men. Recorders and oboes are also the solo instruments in our fourth work, Telemann’s fine Concerto in B flat, TWV54:B2. It too might have been written for the Christmas season.