Naxos continue their enterprising incursions into Bach's sacred vocal music with a complete performance of the Christmas Oratorio. The fact that it is accommodated on three discs as opposed to two should not worry us too much since they are very competitively priced. The conductor Geza Oberfrank favours brisk tempos rather than otherwise though occasionally he gives the impression of hurrying everyone along just a little uncomfortably. The great opening chorus of Part 5 ''Ehre sei dir, Gott'' is injected with vigour and comes over with a youthful exuberance; but there is a slight unsteadiness of rhythm caused by moments when the orchestra falls fractionally behind the conductor's beat. Even so I enjoyed the freshness of approach and the spirited music-making which characterizes the set as a whole.
The solo vocal team is capable without being outstanding. I found Janos Toth a little hollow in sound and expressionless in his shaping of phrases. His arias, ''Grosser Herr und starker Konig'' (Part 1) and ''Erleucht auch'' (Part 5) are fair examples of what I mean. Josef Mukk makes an authoritative Evangelist and his tessitura enables him to encompass his role comfortably. Judit Nemeth may already be familiar to readers through her work with Capella Savaria on the Hungaroton label. She makes a good showing here though her vibrato is wide and her strongly projected voice sometimes dominates the surrounding texture too forcefully. Most appealing to my ears is the voice of Ingrid Kertesi, youthful in character, well focused and lightly projected.
The instrumental playing throughout the work is supportive and clear-textured. As I have noted in previous reviews there are some gifted soloists among the players and consequently much of the obbligato work is first-rate. The choir, quite a large one by the sound of it, is variable. Its lively response to the music in Part 5, for instance, is less evident in the somewhat brutal fashion in which it declaims the opening chorus of the sixth and concluding part of the oratorio.
Although I found plenty of things to enjoy in this performance it would not be my first choice among the mid- and bargain-price contenders; that would still be the Tolz Boys' Choir with the Collegium Aureum on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. Part of the problem is the artificially close balance afforded the soloists which, above all in the case of the bass is such as almost to obliterate the accompanying instruments. Full texts are provided, but in German only. A mixed success.'