It seems beyond John Butt’s Dunedin Consort to issue a recording that is less than perfect, and this ravishing account of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is no exception. Not only does the clarity and beauty of the singing and instrumental playing blow anything else out of the water; Butt’s approach to realising Bach’s intentions under very specific performing conditions is committed yet flexible and open-minded.

For example, he uses two SATB choirs comprising just one voice per part – the maximum number Bach may have had at his disposal at any one time. Of the six cantatas comprising the oratorio, I, III and VI are sung by one choir, II, IV and V by the other. For those cantatas with trumpet parts (I, III and VI) he uses the “redundant” choir as “ripienists” to reinforce the part in the choruses and chorales – in reality, Bach would have used “apprentice” singers here.

As Butt writes in his excellent booklet note, “The aim then is to try and present the range of choral scoring that Bach seems to have used, from doubled vocal lines through to single lines for parts I, IV and V… This approach is definitely not meant to provide the model for all possible performances of this work, but rather to realise something of the implications of Bach’s performing conditions and decisions, in which the vocal complement is perhaps closer to operatic, multi-solo practice than to a modern, blended ‘choir’.”

The results are apparent from the beginning of the cycle, as Cantata I, with its gloriously ebullient opening chorus Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage, replete with trumpets and timpani, opens out into recitatives, arias and chorales of, by turns, blazing energy and majestic solemnity despite the modest forces. Matthew Brook is excellent here too in the crisp, almost jaunty aria Großer Herr und Starker König for bass and trumpet obbligato.

Contrast this with the gentle opening Sinfonia of Cantata II, which latter features a rich scoring for oboe choir and flutes as well as strings and continuo. The exclusive use of four solo voices in chorales such as Schaut hin, dort liegt im finstern Stall creates an intimacy that is in keeping with the arias Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet for tenor (here Thomas Hobbs) and obbligato flute and Schlafe, mein Liebster, genieße der Ruh, impeccably sung by soprano Joanne Lunn.

One could go on extolling the many virtues of this recording ad infinitum, but you get the picture: this is now the benchmark by which all subsequent recordings of the Christmas Oratorio will be measured.