Bach’s Christmas Oratorio isn’t really an oratorio at all, but a set of six cantatas to cover the six days from Christmas to the Epiphany, including New Year’s Day. Japanese conductor Maasaki Suzuki joined the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (AOE) and split the cantatas over two evenings. Like Bach, Suzuki is an Evangelical Protestant – he has cited conveying “God’s message” through Bach’s work as a key objective.

Suzuki recorded all of Bach’s sacred cantatas over 18 years with his increasingly respected Bach Collegium Japan. He belongs to a tradition of Bach performance that includes Gustav Leonhardt and Ton Koopman, with whom he studied. Accordingly, much in evidence for the final part on Saturday were the virtues of restrained drama, perfect tempi and the kind of musical good taste that stands the test of time.