At Christmas time Bach is known chiefly for his monumental Christmas Oratorio. But there are a substantial number of other cantatas that he wrote for those days. This one he composed for the third day of Christmas (Dec. 27), a time when the performing forces were limited though he seems not to have been constrained by such matters. This cantata too is based on a church hymn the tune for which was apparently unknown to the composer before this work. The hymn text, expanded by the cantata's librettist, focuses on the appearance of Jesus and especially on his name. The work is dominated by notions of joy, musically delivered with a kind of perpetual motion assigned to upper strings and - everybody's favorite: the oboes d'amour. The chugging of the reed instruments continues
in movement two, ending just in time for some reflection on the name of Jesus (Jesulein, my dear Jesus). Here the musical treatment turns to what one author calls "graceful tenderness" of a kind that is worthy of the newborn baby. Bach employs a variety of unusual techniques to make the point, all of which are sheer pleasure to hear.
This magnificent cantata will be augmented by other seasonal pieces offered by the ensemble, including a Chicago premiere of Heinrich von Herzogenberg's (friend and student of Johannes Brahms) setting of Lo, how a rose e'er blooming.
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