Saint-Saëns: Oratorio de Noël, Op. 12 (arr. for soloists, choir and organ)

Description

Owing to its Latin text, Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio has found admirers all over the world. Saint-Saëns avoids theatrical effects in his church music and relies almost entirely on homophonic choral writing. Here the operatic allusions so popular in his day have given way to a mixture of romantic élan and reminiscences of the Baroque. The subtitle reads "dans le style de J. S. Bach" although the composer was unaware of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. in this unusual form the oratorio, of which the final movement is already a hit with many choruses, is well-suited for performance during the Advent and Christmas seasons, providing a welcome change from Bach.