Together with the Munich orchestra L'arpa festante and a harmonious soloists quintet from Simona Houda Šaturová (soprano), Regina Pätzer (mezzo-soprano), Anke Vondung (Alt), Hansjörg Mammel (tenor) and Florian Boesch (baritone), the Bach Choir at Sony / BMG recorded a Christmas CD that moves not only with Saint-Saëns' Opus off the beaten paths glühwein blessed Christmas spirit.
Ralf Otto goes gently on this oratorio zoom: Quietly, quietly - as he did not want to interfere with the child in the manger. Soft sounds a delicate organ sound that seems like a warm glow in the dark after. Delicate and fluffy as the strings lay out and play around the certainty verströmenden mezzo-soprano Regina Pätzers: "Expectans, expectavi Dominum" - "I waited patiently for the Lord."
This idea draws on Hansjörg Mammels sparkling tenor and choir, which has previously been powerfully intoned the Gloria, responds with noble restraint. But this ensemble also has power: sealing and stringently sees the second psalm as sonic reflection of the orchestral ensemble.
And suddenly purring sound in the doxology to a minimum together, but is present as in the Forte passages: The Bach Choir proves into a larger ensemble the flexibility of a small ensemble. Like a cathedral effect the final "Tollite hostias": Here is not only sung, here is preaching instead.
Matching act also the other soloists: Simona Houda Satourovás featherweight soprano harmony duet with the rich bass Florian Boesch and as by an invisible bond the two voices seem connected, even if the one in the air and the other aimed at depth; the "big moment" for Anke Vondung follows a couple of tracks later.
The Weihnachtsoratoium of Camille Saint-Saëns is stylistically not necessarily a self-contained work. Also, it tells only in batches, the Christmas story, as we know it from Bach's counterpart ago. Ralf Otto understands this music but as a whole, giving each part its own imprint. Whether passionate choral sound or harmonic ensemble singing of the soloists on the delicate sound of the harp: The harmony than heart's desire for Christian festival is not only audible but also palpable.
The recorded music is next to the Christmas Oratorio, the famous "Panis Angelicus" from the Mass Opus 12 by César Franck and his Psalm 150 in its original version for choir, organ and symphony orchestra before. The title gave the same pieces by Gabriel Fauré and Charles Gounod, from the well Bach's "Ave Maria" can be heard with the filigree floating Old Anke Vondungs. Fauré's "Cantique de Jean Racine" concludes the festive and multicolored cross-section of French romanticism atmospheric.
