A painting of woman holding a baby.

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

16 December 2023

In the Concert Hall

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Classical Music

The Christmas Oratorio is easily one of the most inspired musical enactments of the Nativity. Brett Weymark has chosen the first three parts, from the exultant opening to the tender scenes in the stable and the festive arrival of the shepherds.

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

When JS Bach was at the height of his powers he created a monumental musical work for the Christmas season. Although he called it an oratorio, it was in six parts – one cantata for each of the first six days of Christmas. His listeners would have heard these in church services, with prayers, a sermon and congregational singing. But he genius of the Christmas Oratorio is that the music works brilliantly on a larger scale – tracing the Christmas narrative in satisfying style.

The concert opens with the thundering drums, trumpets and the thrilling sound of exultant voices lifted in praise: “Shout for joy!” The sweet pastoral sounds of flutes and oboes colour part two and its tender scenes in the lowly stable. Festive colours return as the shepherds arrive to celebrate the Lord of Heaven. In Bach’s hands the mystery of the Nativity finds perfect expression in glorious music.  

Brett Weymark has assembled the finely tuned voices of Chamber Singers and some of Sydney’s most stylish vocal soloists to find the impeccable balance between baroque expression and epic musical effect.

Program

Johann Sebastian BACH 
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248

Part 1
For the 1st day of the Nativity
(“Jauchzet, frohlocket!”)

Part 2
For the 2nd day of the Nativity
(“Und es waren Hirten”)

Part 3
For the 3rd day of the Nativity
(“Herrscher des Himmels”)

Artists

Conductor
Brett Weymark 

Soprano
Penelope Mills 

Mezzo-soprano
Margaret Plummer 

Tenor
Andrew Goodwin 

Bass-baritone
Christopher Richardson 

Chamber Singers

Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra

Other information

Venue information

Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.

All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.

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