Performing Bach and Telemann’s seasonal cantatas in northern Germany is as festive as it is perilous, rather like trying to stand out in France while offering another cheese platter. Yet Vox Luminis, under Lionel Meunier, stepped confidently into this terrain with good humour and radiant musicality, opening the evening in an Advent glow that carried the dry crackle, resinous scent and quiet warmth of winter firewood.
Telemann’s Uns ist ein Kind geboren caught flame immediately. True to the grandeur of a Christmas Day cantata, trumpets blaze through almost every movement, and Vox Luminis matched that brilliance with the brisk snap of fresh firewood. The opening duet featured two soloists whose lines were clean, supple and seamlessly woven into the texture. The first aria, essentially a hymn of thanksgiving, glowed warmly and the singers shaped the quieter section with focused poise and impeccable tuning. With trumpets sparkling above and voices radiating confident ease, the cantata concluded in festive heat – bright, crisp, and fully alive.
The festive intensity continued with Bach’s Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV63. Scored for four trumpets, timpani, triple oboes, bassoon and full strings, it unfolded as a grand symmetrical arc built on the transformation of sorrow into blessing. Vox Luminis met the opening chorus with radiant poise: flashing fanfares, motet-like contrasts and jubilant precision, the choir cutting cleanly through the orchestral blaze. The alto recitative, its twisting lines once likened to “Satan’s chains”, was delivered with focused drama and the two rare duets were shaped with airy intimacy, especially the soprano-bass pairing, who stepped forward with relaxed confidence. The final chorus, conceived on the largest scale, achieved a superb slow burn, the ensemble navigating the dark chromatic fugue before bursting back into jubilant light.
After the interval came Bach’s Magnificat in D major – a compact showcase of his vocal and orchestral imagination. The emotional range was striking: flashes of fiery choral jubilation, moments of serene stillness, compassionate duets and instrumental colours that shifted like facets of a jewel. A few of the early soprano arias projected slightly less than ideal, but the overall standard remained impressively high. Several movements hinted again at the opera Bach never got to write, music shaped with such instinctive theatre that it feels at times like scenes from an unwritten stage work. The oboe obbligato, one of Bach’s most cherished timbres, sang with supple, vocal warmth and the continuo team sustained the vitality of the first half: agile, warm and quietly authoritative, propelling the music forward with unforced energy.
By the final doxology, the audience’s gratitude was unmistakable. Nearly every musician received individual applause, a testament to an ensemble whose unity of heart, hand and craft radiates from every phrase. Vox Luminis brought excellence with genuine warmth and joy, illuminating Hamburg’s dim winter evening with music of rare coherence and spirit – like a well-stoked fire of winter logs, dry, aromatic and reassuringly radiant.
