Philippe Herreweghe’s understated conducting helps to form a smoothly paced narrative from the six cantatas Bach designed for different consecutive liturgical days between Christmas Day 1734 and Epiphany 1735. This concert at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is not only musically beguiling but also filmed intelligently, with the production team always illuminating exactly the right views of the musical details perfectly on cue: one cannot watch this without admiring organist Maude Gratton’s delicate touch, Marcel Ponseele’s profound oboe-playing and violinist Christine Busch’s attentive leadership (and in particular her breathtaking obbligato in ‘Schliesse, mein Herze, dies selige Wunder’).

Collegium Vocale Gent’s choir and orchestra are arranged sensibly in an intimate three-row semicircle and their collective team spirit produces sweetly conversational artistry. The soloists step forward from the choir. Dorothee Mields sings with stylistic sureness and radiant personality in ‘Flösst, mein Heiland, flösst dein Namen’; it is a pity some of the audience suffer from intrusive coughs. Few basses match Peter Kooij’s experience in this repertoire: he conveys compassionate authority in ‘Grosser Herr und starker König’ (Alain de Rudder’s soft trumpet is a tasteful alternative to the crackling flamboyance some might instinctively go for). Thomas Hobbs’s relaxed high melismatic passages form a flawless dialogue with Patrick Beuckels’s gentle flute obbligato in ‘Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet’. Damien Guillon confirms his growing reputation as the finest Bachian countertenor to have emerged in the last few years: his seemingly effortless partnership with warm woodwinds and beautifully executed messa di voce in ‘Schlafe, mein Liebster’ is a truly special moment.

Time and again, we see Herreweghe shrewdly direct with an emphasis on less being more; he calmly controls the celebratory choruses laden with three trumpets and timpani (such as the openings of Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage and Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen), so that they are eloquently light-footed rather than bombastic. Some might find this subdued compared to a bonanza of unbridled dramatic festivity (for example, the vividness of John Eliot Gardiner) but Herreweghe preserves the devotional context of the celebrations and speaks softly to a pensive congregation.