Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Greg Funfgeld, Marietta Simpson :: Christmas Oratorio

Score One for the Home Team!

T. Beers | Arlington, Virginia United States | 11/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A latter-day heritage of colonial-era Moravian settlers, the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bach Choir has been performing Bach in the Lehigh valley for over a hundred years. (They gave the American premieres of both the B-minor Mass (1900) and the Christmas Oratorio (1901). Fans of the great H.L. Mencken know he never missed the annual Bethlehem performance of the B-minor Mass back in the '20s!) The Bach Choir and Orchestra are a true national treasure and they sound better than ever under the direction of Music Director Greg Funfgeld. If you are a minimalist, "period instruments" fanatic when it comes to performances of Bach, this performance of the Christmas Oratorio might not appeal. But for everyone else, Funfgeld's beautifully realized, lively yet sensitive performance, expertly recorded by Dorian in 24-Bit sound, should be a major contender. I certainly rank it with classic performances of the past like those of Karl Richter, Eugen Jochum and Kurt Thomas. And, unlike those now elderly recordings, Funfgeld's digital production clearly reflects recent Bach scholarship: his choir may be larger than the contemporary norm, but they do know how to dance with this music! The prevailing sense is of a light, transparent Bach, attentive to the meaning of the texts without lapsing into portentous pseudo-profundity. A few years back, Funfgeld and his choir traveled to Leipzig to perform Bach in JSB's own church (the Thomaskirche) to widespread acclaim. I find it incredibly moving to think that an old American institution, still alive and vibrant after 100 years, brought something back to its even more ancient German roots. Bach and those early Moravian settlers would have been proud! Note: besides the Christmas Oratorio, Funfgeld and the Bach Choir have also recorded the B-minor Mass and two CDs of Bach cantatas for Dorian. You can't go wrong with any of these performances."