When Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Handel's Messiah Meet

Sankt Jakobs Church's Christmas concert 2026 sets the two great Christmas classics against each other in a single programme: selected choruses and arias from Handel's Messiah and Bach's Christmas Oratorio are played in succession, movement by movement, so you hear the two composers' musical language directly side by side - Bach's polyphony against Handel's melody and drama. The audience also gets to sing along with two Bach chorales.

The Baroque Orchestra plays on original instruments with Alison Luthmers as concertmaster leading musicians who work daily in leading Scandinavian Baroque ensembles. The soloists are hand-picked from Baroque singers in Denmark and England: soprano Anna Miilmann, countertenor Jonathan Dabourne, tenor Kristoffer Appel and bass David McCune.

The choir is Sankt Jakobs Church's Kantori, expanded for the occasion with singing students from the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Martin Høybye Petersen, the church's organist and cantor, conducts the concert from the chamber organ.