Peter is presenting an hour-long introduction to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on Radio New Zealand Concert before conducting the work with Wellington’s Bach Choir and the Chiesa Ensemble on 15 December in Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hill St, Wellington at 3.30 pm..

The radio programme will be broadcast on 12 December at 7 pm and thereafter available as a podcast from Radio New Zealand Concert.

Soloists in the Christmas Oratorio are Nicola Edgecombe, Megan Hurnard, Oliver Sewell and Kieran Rayner. The Chiesa Ensemble is led by Rebecca Struthers. The performance features cantatas 1 (“Jauchzet, frohlocket”), 2 (“Und es waren Hirten”), 4 (“Fallt mit Danken”) and 6 (“Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben”). Peter says that he is greatly looking forward to the performance. “I am grateful that the Bach Choir and Chiesa Ensemble were prepared to go for what, instrumentally speaking, is quite an extravagant selection from the six possible cantatas. While we begin and end in a blaze of trumpets and timpani, the pastoral colours of cantata two (with its oboes d’amore and oboes da caccia) and the regal refinement of cantata 4 with its pair of horns) are both very special.”