Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.It looks likely that this will be one of the last recordings from John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir, if not the very last. Since a widely-publicised incident last summer, Gardiner has parted company with the choir he founded and its period instrumental ensemble, the English Baroque Soloists. While the original groups plough on with new conductors, he has gone off to set up a rival choir and orchestra.Bach’s Christmas Oratorio has been recorded by Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir before, but the nearly 40-year gap has provided the opportunity for some further, deep thinking. Gardiner, 81, speaks in the booklet about how these six separate cantatas can build up in expressive power.The second cantata feels especially intimate here, like a symphony’s slow movement. The opening Sinfonia, as the shepherds watch their flocks, creates a picture of pastoral peace, and Gardiner and countertenor Hugh Cutting bring an exceptional, rapt quality to the beautiful aria, “Schlafe, mein Liebster, genieße der Ruh”.Elsewhere, there is joyous energy to spare, derived from the performances’ buoyant rhythms, and the words are especially vivid, as if weighted this time round with fresh consideration. The soloists — Nick Pritchard is a fine, detailed Evangelist — make a well-balanced group.Captured live, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are as impeccable as ever, and the recording, made at concerts in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, in December 2022, adds a warm church ambience without any loss of clarity.★★★★★‘Bach: Christmas Oratorio’ is released by DG
