Cappella Amsterdam & Nederlands Kamerorkest - Live on NPO Radio 4

This concert is given without an audience and can be heard live on NPO Radio 4 and via live streaming.

The festive Orchestral Suite No. 3 - with its exuberant opening, famous Air and delightful Gigue - is the perfect prelude to Bach's great choral work, the Magnificat in D BWV 243. For Christmas 1723, Bach created this radiant version of the hymn, in which Mary sings her joy over the coming of Christ. It is a festive work, complete with three trumpets and timpani, and the ideal pacer to get you into the Christmas mood. A nice dimension is added by the two choral works by Johannes Brahms - unmistakably indebted to the work of the great Johann Sebastian. In the motet Warum ist das Licht gegeben, Brahms combines texts from the Old and New Testament; in his Geistliches Lied, he bases himself on the work of the 17th-century poet Paul Fleming. In both cases, a contemplative, human resignation emanates.