Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, written for the Christmas festivities in Leipzig in 1734, is a set of six self-contained but linked cantatas rather than a conventional oratorio. Nos. 1 and 3, ‘Jauchzet, frohlocket!’ and ‘Herrscher des Himmels’, were performed on Christmas Day and on 27 December respectively, and concern the Nativity and the journey of the shepherds to Bethlehem. As befits the festive occasion, they are richly scored with trumpets, drums, flutes, oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo.

Bach’s cantata ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ may have been performed in Leipzig on Christmas Day 1745 to mark the signing of a peace treaty between Prussia and Saxony. It is a shortened and rewritten version of the Gloria of the B minor Mass, and is scored for the same large orchestra as the 1734 cantatas.

The programme is completed by Telemann’s delightful concerto in E minor for recorder and flute, played by Maggie Bruce and William Summers.