Saint-Saëns was famously described as ‘the greatest composer who wasn't a genius’, and his compositions as ‘bad music well written’. These assessments are partly due to the fact that – unlike his older contemporary Fauré, or his slightly younger contemporary Debussy – Saint-Saëns didn't have a particularly distinctive style. But what does link such diverse works as the Second Piano Concerto, the Third Symphony, The Carnival of the Animals, and the Christmas Oratorio is superb craftsmanship underpinned by a love of the music of J.S. Bach. As well as its debt to Bach's music, Saint-Saëns's Oratorio de Noël is a successor to Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ, though shorter, less fully scored, and in Latin rather than French. The piece is in ten movements (the first of which is an orchestral Prelude), lasts 40 minutes, and is scored for five vocal soloists (soprano, mezzo, alto, tenor, and baritone), four-voice choir (which doesn't divide), and string orchestra with harp and organ. Helpfully, the chorus parts are fun and easy to sing, and the solo parts are good showcases for professional singers (but note that the soprano soloist needs to have a strong top C).

Saint-Saëns became organist of the Parisian church of La Madeleine (the official church of the French Empire) when he was just 23, at the same time as he began his Oratorio de Noël. Saint-Saëns was an organist first and foremost, and the sound of the organ is integral to his Christmas Oratorio. The overall scoring is similar to early versions of the Fauré Requiem (without the French horns), but with the bias towards the upper strings rather than the lower. And as in Fauré's Requiem, the harp part needs professional attention and the organ part is most effective if the instrument has a rich variety of 8ft stops.

The new Bärenreiter edition of Saint-Saëns's Christmas Oratorio (published last year for the centenary of the composer's death in 1921) is clear and legible, with a particularly thoughtful piano accompaniment in the vocal score. The reduction is Eugène Gigout's original orchestral reduction, reworked by Dr Christina Stahl. There is a wealth of introductory material, all of which is in German, English and French. Dr Stahl's preface is detailed and fascinating and there is also a guide to the French pronunciation of Latin as used in 19th-century France. The specifically Gallican pronunciation of Latin fell out of use during the early 20th century, but its restoration in French music from the second half of the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th is crucial, according to Christina Stahl. So, not only is there a table of how to pronounce every letter and combination of letters, but also a phonetic transcription of the entire Latin text. The Latin text itself is also translated into German, English, and French. The introductory material to this edition is inspiring, helpful, and far-ranging; it is very impressive indeed, not least because it is also brief and unambiguously presented. Puzzlingly, footnotes 17 and 18 are missing in the English preface, but present in the German and French.

The Latin text is taken from the Old Testament, apart from the second movement, which enacts the ‘shepherds abiding in the fields’ passage from St Luke's Gospel, using all five soloists and culminating in the chorus singing ‘Glory to God in the highest’. Most touching of all is the opening orchestral Prelude, which takes the opening of the second part of Bach's Christmas Oratorio as its starting point, although its very opening is more reminiscent of shepherds' actual piping than Bach's pastoral portrait. If you are planning your Christmas music now, then do consider this seriously underrated oratorio, which neatly fills one half of a concert.