Bach composed Christmas music for more than 30 years of his professional life but none in such a short a space of time as he did when he arrived in Leipzig in 1723. He used the relatively quiet Advent period to prepare for the onslaught of commitments around Yuletide and to deliver a strong new cache of material. This recording celebrates his vibrant representation of all the major themes of the season.

The Magnificat was his major contribution in his first year, as it was required for performance on Christmas Day. As one of only a few Bach works composed in Latin, this grandiloquent 16-movement canticle enabled the new Cantor to make his mark with a supreme exhibition of compositional mastery and acoustical opulence. It is as a concert piece that today’s audiences most often hear the Magnificat in D but Bach originally composed the work in E flat, with four interpolated movements reflecting the special seasonal context.

Philippe Herreweghe, as you would expect, presents as tailored and tonally refined a reading as you are likely to find, as indeed he did in his more intimate but prosaic account of the D major version from 1990. The new one is sensitively paced and is dealt an additional allure by the imploring obbligato oboe playing of Marcel Ponseele in ‘Quia respexit’, the recorders’ delectable floatings in ‘Esurientes’ and an animated ‘Quia fecit’ led by a consistently responsive continuo team. None of that would retain its impact were the vocal contributions not equally satis-fying. Ingeborg Danz is a mature and relaxed Bachian while Carolyn Sampson brings her customary freshness and radiance to bear on a gloriously expectant account of her duo, ‘Virga Jesse’, with Sebastian Noack. In the other duet, ‘Et misericorda’, Danz and Mark Padmore contrive an unusual intensity, assisted by the languid and grainy strings of Collegium Vocale, although it falls short of the glowing reading (with Gerard Lesne and Howard Crook) from Herreweghe’s earlier recording. This new performance also ranks with the best – Gardiner and Hickox, but not Kuijken, as is often suggested – in terms of varied coloration and sonic choral brilliance.

Bach’s Christmas cantatas from 1723 and 1724 comprise works of fascinating range. ‘Christen, ätzet diesen Tag’ (No 63) is another extrovert celebration, with trumpets and drums, originally conceived in Weimar and smartened up for its new surroundings. John Eliot Gardiner gives this a virtuoso rendering (it’s also on DVD). Herreweghe is rather less driven, more gently articulated and texturally luminous, even if there are some unexpected rough edges in the strings.

Most interesting is ‘Christen wir sollen’ which presents the idea of thanksgiving as coming from within the dark recesses of Advent, preparation and expectation; Collegium Vocale are supreme in austerity and the distilled stilo antico, though perhaps less responsive to the hirsute physicality of the great aria, ‘Johannes freudenvolles’, which Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau portrays with such verve (if slight self-parody) for Karl Richter.

Mark Padmore is in ebullient form here and so, too, are Danz and the otherwise rather piping Dorothee Mields, in the duet ‘Die Armut’ from Cantata No 91. Bach’s vision of humility, exemplified in Christ’s worldly visage (represented in a suitably mundane – in the best sense – ritornello motif) is caught in immaculately tuned suspensions. ‘Ich freue mich’ (Cantata No 133) is a masterpiece of Bach’s second cycle, dating from 1724, and it has received several notable recordings recently. Compared to the infectious thrill of the chase from Koopman, Herreweghe is a touch anodyne but this is a mild gripe for what is, overall, an outstanding collection of performances to celebrate a Bach Christmas – beyond the great Oratorio.