In the page's words:

Johann Sebastian Bach's (1685-1750) Christmas Oratorio consists of six festive cantatas. They were each composed for one of the three Christmas holidays, New Year, the Sunday after New Year and Epiphany and were originally performed during church services.
Bach himself refers to it as an "oratorio" and conceives a cyclical context through the continuous biblical narrative of the Christmas story.
Almost all parts are taken from secular cantatas and were rewritten by Bach for the Christmas Oratorio and divided into two parts (cantatas 1 - 3 and cantatas 4 - 6). Part 1 is determined by the festive trumpet key of D major, in keeping with the key symbolism of the time, which virtually frames the first part.

In addition to the excellent Dresdner Barockorchester, internationally renowned baroque vocal specialists Victoria Wilson (soprano), Julia Böhme (alto), Florian Sievers (tenor) and Sebastian Noack (baritone) have been recruited. The musical director is Jochen Steuerwald, director of church music