I have a wobbling pile of Christmas releases waiting for attention, seasonal exotica from all points of the compass. But nothing deserves being wrapped as much as Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s new version of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, recorded with stellar soloists and the Concentus Musicus Wien. The presentation is luxurious. The booklet pages gleam with gold paint – hell, unfortunately, for reading the texts.

There are five Christmas cards, of no significance. The discs, though, are a big blast of warmth and uplift, to a degree unexpected from a conductor famously fond of the nervous, the strident, and the dramatic. True, in the choral movements the Arnold Schoenberg Choir echo those lurching Harnoncourt dynamics that first tried some ears in his Bach performances 30 years ago. But, bathed in the gentle and friendly acoustic of Vienna’s Musikverein, the music still flows and smiles, at an unhurried pace, as any retelling of the Christmas story should,.

Werner Güra’s Evangelist gets down to business early in the six cantatas. Reaching the word “ schwanger” (pregnant), he dips into an expressive hush – first of many expressive touches in his supple narration. Bernarda Fink’s high point arrives in the second cantata, when she lullabies baby Jesus with an instantly affecting and honeyed calm. The bass part is shared between Gerald Finley, especially eloquent, and Christian Gerhaher. The Soprano Christine Schäfer misses some lustre occasionally, but certainly not when she sings her aria Nur ein Wink.

The Concentus musicians play a key part in maintaining the light, glowing, open texture Harnoncourt seeks. The period-instrument woodwinds, piquantly burbling, always remind us that this is a pastoral story, involving shepherds watching flocks. No sound is hard-driven; can this be the same Harnoncourt who gave us a white-knuckle Matthew Passion seven years ago?

For some listeners, there will still be mannerisms that could cut into the pleasure of repeated listenings: maybe those seesaw dynamics. But place this set next to past period-instrument performances of the work, even Harnoncourt’s own, and it stands victorious.

The reasons boil down to two simple words: joy and radiance.

(Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)

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