Pannon Philharmonic

Conductor

András Vass

Education:
Twelve years of piano studies at the Targu Mures Arts Lyceum; two years of private study with the composer Boldizsár Csíky; Balthasar five years of conducting study led by  Ervin Lukács, András Ligeti, and Tamás Gál, after having admitted with maximum score to Franz Liszt Academy of Music… More

About the Programme

Program:
Bach: Christmas Oratorio (Parts 1 & 2)

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio does not follow the usual principia of the genre. It contradicts the traditions that the work can be performed in parts too; furthermore, to play it at once is almost impossible, due its length. The linked six cantatas cover the whole Christmas, from the immediate events before Jesus Christ’s birth to the adoration of the Magi. Because of his busy job in Leipzig, Bach did not have time for composing each part; in several cases, he uses already written (sometimes secular) cantatas’ details. The old ones’ lyrics were over-worked by the poet, Picander. The first three cantatas music follows the happenings from the cheering choir’s song, accompanied by trumpets and timpani, through the 2nd cantata’s pastoral mood to the grateful 3rd cantata, made for Christmas Day. Bach formed the mystery of the Saviour’s birth into music - with religious devotion.