It is unknown whether Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, either its individual cantatas or the whole cycle, was ever presented during the composer’s lifetime after the Feast of Christmas in 1734-35.

The work quickly faded into oblivion and went unheard for more than a century following the composer’s death. Even after Felix Mendelssohn launched the Bach revival with his performance of the St Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829, the Christmas Oratorio would wait nearly three more decades to be rediscovered through a complete performance, also in Berlin, in 1857.

This rediscovery coincided with the upsurge in the celebration of Christmas as a popular holiday (not simply a notable Church Feast), a trend that helped Bach’s masterpiece achieve the enduring place it deserves in this season of festivity.