Harmonia Mundi: A Baroque Christmas — Bach, Charpentier, Corelli & More (4 CD Box Set)

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD (4-disc box set)
• Brand / Label: Harmonia Mundi
• Title: A Baroque Christmas
• Featured Composers: J.S. Bach, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Rosenmüller, Dieterich Buxtehude, Louis-Claude Daquin, Domenico Zipoli, Claude Balbastre
• Featured Artists: Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, Concerto Vocale, René Jacobs; Ensemble 415, Chiara Banchini, Jesper Christensen; Ensemble Correspondances, Sébastien Daucé; Cantus Cölln, Concerto Palatino, Konrad Junghänel; René Saorgin
• Release Year: 2019 (this compilation; recordings 1976–2016)
• UPC: 3149020938645
• Catalogue Number: HMX 2908984.87
• Genre: Classical / Baroque / Sacred / Christmas

Product Features

• Format: 4 CDs
• Total runtime: 5 hours 03 minutes 31 seconds
• Repertoire period: 17th–18th century (Baroque)
• Performance style: Period-instrument / historically informed
• Booklet notes in French, English, German
• Made in the EU
• Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed

Overview

This is a Baroque Christmas assembled from Harmonia Mundi's own catalogue — four discs drawing on the label's best period-instrument recordings, anchored by René Jacobs' celebrated reading of Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and RIAS Kammerchor.

The collection moves between two registers the Baroque did especially well: plain, almost folk-simple devotion on one side, and dazzling polyphony on the other. Charpentier's Pastorale de Noël and his Grandes antiennes "O" de l'Avent bring the French sacred tradition, performed by Ensemble Correspondances under Sébastien Daucé. Corelli's Concerto No. 8 — the "Christmas Concerto," written for the night of the Nativity — gives the instrumental high point, played by Ensemble 415.

Around those pillars sit works by Schütz, Rosenmüller, Buxtehude, Daquin, Zipoli, and Balbastre, with contributions from Cantus Cölln and Concerto Palatino. More than five hours of music telling the Christmas story as the 17th and 18th centuries heard it.

A natural pick for lovers of Bach, early-music collectors, and anyone who wants their Christmas listening done properly — on period instruments, by some of the finest ensembles in the field.

Interesting Facts

• The set is built around René Jacobs' complete Christmas Oratorio, one of the most acclaimed recordings of Bach's six-cantata cycle for the Christmas season.
• Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8 carries the inscription "fatto per la notte di Natale" (made for the night of Christmas) and is among the most beloved Baroque Christmas works.
• Charpentier spent time in Rome studying with Carissimi, and his French sacred style blends Italian drama with the elegance of the French court.
• The recordings span four decades of Harmonia Mundi's early-music work, from 1976 to 2016.
• Buxtehude's organ and vocal music was so admired that the young J.S. Bach famously walked some 400 km to Lübeck to hear him play.
• The performers represent several of the leading historically informed ensembles in Europe, including Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Cantus Cölln.

Track Listing

This is a 4-CD box; the full track-by-track contents with timings aren't legible in the photos provided. Send a clear image of the disc/track listing and I'll add the complete tracklist with timings.

Publishers

Released by Harmonia Mundi Musique s.a.s. (Médiapôle Saint-Césaire, Arles), ℗ 1976–2016, © 2019. Made in the EU.

Enjoyed this set? A quick review helps other early-music fans find it.