“…a chorus of angels…it all felt like shimmering silver clouds in the distance slowly building and moving closer.”
– ClassikON, 2024 –
“And lo, the star, which they had seen in the East, went before them…”
Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental ‘oratorio’ for the Christmas season is really a set of six cantatas – one for each of the first six days of Christmas. Performing them together in concert is the musical equivalent of binge-watching Bach – the best of guilty pleasures!
In 2023, Brett Weymark conducted Parts 1–3 in what Limelight described as a triumphant ‘high-altitude assault on Bach’s magic mountain’. In 2025, Elizabeth Scott concludes the series with Parts 4–6. In these cantatas, the narrative turns to the Magi – the wise men from the East who followed the star to the Christ child – and Bach gives them music that’s as brilliant and intoxicating as gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Our Chamber Singers and VOX will be joined by the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, and two emerging composers will be invited to create reflective interludes to sit between the cantatas.
Saturday 13 December | 2pm
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
This performance will run for 2 hours and 5 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.
Johann Sebastian Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
Part 4. For the Feast of the Circumcision (“Fallt mit Danken”)
Part 5. For the First Sunday in the New Year (“Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen”)
Part 6. For the Feast of the Epiphany (“Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben”)
with two new interludes by winners of the SPC Emerging Composer Awards
Elizabeth Scott conductor
Miriam Bannan soprano
Hannah Fraser mezzo-soprano
Jacob Lawrence tenor
Christopher Richardson baritone
Chamber Singers
VOX
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra
Premium $140 | A $114 | B $88 | C $60 | D $45
Concessions $126| A $103| B $79 | C $55 | D $41
Under 30 $30
A booking fee of $8.95 per transaction applies.