The Bach Choir of Bethlehem makes a triumphant return to in-person live performances with J.S. Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio.”

Performances are 8 p.m. Dec. 11, First Presbyterian Church, Cedar Crest Boulevard and Tilghman Street, Allentown, and 4 p.m. Dec. 12, First Presbyterian Church, 2344 Center St., Bethlehem.

The Dec. 12 concert will be live-streamed and can be viewed when it premieres and through Dec. 26.

A recording of the concert will be broadcast Christmas Eve Dec. 24, WWFM, the classical network.

These are the first full-fledged live Bach Choir of Bethlehem concerts with audiences since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shutdown and the first Bach Choir Christmas concerts since 2019.

The repertoire invites the audience into the Nativity story, from the opening chorus of irresistible rhythmic drive and remarkable invention, trilling flutes and oboes, heraldic trumpets, thundering drums and lightning-fast strings, states a press release about the concert.

“There is a rich variety of music from thrilling choruses with trumpets and timpani and full orchestra to an intimate lullaby for alto and violin. It’s an astonishing piece of music, much loved and admired, and a perfect way to celebrate all the joy of Christmas,” Bach Choir of Bethlehem Artistic Director and Conductor Greg Funfgeld states in the press release.

“This is our first major concert where we are in front of a live audience. We’re really exited about it We’re really looking forward to it,” Funfgeld says in a phone interview.

“We started doing live ‘Bach at Noon’ concerts in September.”

“Bach at Noon” concerts resumed in-person live performances in September at Central Moravian Church, Main and Church streets, Bethlehem.

The Bach Choir last performed the three-part “Christmas Oratorio” in 2015. The first United States’ performance of the “Christmas Oratorio” was given in 1901 and repeated in 1904 in Bethlehem by the Bach Choir.

Raymond Walters, in his book, “The Bach Choir of Bethlehem” (1918, Houghton Mifflin), reports about the fourth Bach Festival in December 1904:

“No other community in the United States, probably, could celebrate the Nativity as Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, celebrated it last week.

“On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Bach’s cheerful and moving ‘Christmas Oratorio,’ interspersed with other compositions by Bach, including the stirring five-part ‘Magnificat’ and the wonderful unaccompanied eight-part motet ‘Sing ye to the Lord,’ was given in the Moravian Church.

“The chorus consisted of The Bach Choir, a musical institution of which the whole country has reason to be proud.”

Says Funfgeld of the “Christmas Oratorio”: “It’s been performed regularly throughout the Choir’s history.

“It’s like the glory of heaven coming down to earth,” Funfgeld says of the “Oratorio.”

“The tympani gets the opening solo. The three trumpets and the tympani were always paired together. Often, they represented God’s presence. It’s part of the festive music.”

Funfgeld will conduct the Bach Festival Orchestra, which includes two flutes, four oboes, bassoon, three trumpets, tympani, strings and organ; the Bach Choir, which has 85 singers, and soloists.

Soloists include Agnes Zsigovics, soprano; Daniel Taylor, countertenor; Lawrence Jones, tenor, and Christ?pheren Nomura, baritone.

“I love the soloists. I think they are all wonderful. It’s very important to make music with these fabulous colleagues and always a privilege,” says Funfgeld.

The Bach Choir suspended its annual festival in May 2020 and offered streamed concerts for the 2021 festival, “Bach at Noon” summer series and 2020 Christmas concert.

The pandemic provided unexpected benefits for the Bach Choir.

“Our Christmas concert last year was seen by people in 48 states and 16 foreign countries. Some people who watched last year from California have signed up to see it this year,” Funfgeld says.

“We’re grateful for what we have been able to do. We’ve all had to learn as we go,” said Funfgeld, who has postponed his retirement until after the 2022 festival.

The Bach Choir and Orchestra has had to mask up.

“The choir are wearing masks when we rehearse. We have the ventilation working and some element of social distancing. We’re rehearsing as hard as we can and dealing with the realities that come along with it,” Funfgeld says.

“The choir will be wearing masks for the performances, as will the orchestra, except for the woodwinds and the brass.

“The choir has really adapted beautifully. We’ve bought plastic inserts for the masks. We did our festival last May virtually. And people were quite surprised how well they sounded,” says Funfgeld.

The Bach Choir Christmas concerts began in 1985 for the tercentennial of Bach’s birth.

Of the “Christmas Oratorio,” Funfgeld says, “I think of it as an old friend and a cherished friend, music I deeply love.”

Funfgeld says that in the intervening years since the three parts of the “Oratorio” were last performed in 2015, he has a renewed awareness of the Bach work:

“In six years, a lot of us have lived a lot of life. You don’t go back to anything in the same way. I think we’re kind of ever evolving in the way we think about this music, the way we love this music.

“When you come back to it, you try to experience it as if for the first time. You read the text and it sparks your imagination.

“There’s endless creativity in the rhythm, in the harmony, in the orchestration, and the richness of melodic invention. Every time, you’re caught by something new and different. And it’s always wonderful.”

The concerts conclude with an audience sing-along of Christmas carols, including “Silent Night,” sung in German and English.

“It’s always a wonderful part of our Christmas concerts,” says Funfgeld.

“Christmas Oratorio” preview

Greg Fungfeld previews the “Christmas Oratorio” concerts on the Bach Choir YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmGx5EBB_hI

Concerts information

There is not a limit on audience capacity for the “Christmas Oratorio” concerts. Seats are reserved at each concert location. There will be an intermission between parts one and two and part three.

As per Bach Choir COVID protocol, audience members must show proof of vaccination and a matching ID to attend. Face masks must be worn.

Ticket information for concerts and concerts streaming: www.bach.org; 610-866-4382, ext. 115, 110