The famous Christmas oratory was recorded live in Stuttgart on Dec. 19, 2004. A very living atmosphere is present especially in the multichannel version. Apart from their mutual temporal relevance, Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Camille Saint-Saëns' Oratorio de Noël offer no reason to search for any similarities. Bach's six-part cycle of cantatas, which the Leipzig Thomaskantor combined to make into an oratorio, was not a model for the French composer in spite of the reverence he paid to Bach, writing „Dans le style de Seb. Bach" at the beginning of the opening „Prélude" of his Oratorio de Noël. Saint-Saëns' composition is light-years away from the festive, timpani-supported trumpet-splendor of the „jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage" (exult, rejoice, arise, praise the days) with which Bach opened the first cantata of his Christmas Oratorio. Saint-Saëns' model was more likely his immediate musical environment, the markedly lyrical
orientation of French church music of the nineteenth century. The scoring alone makes this clear: the five vocal soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone) are joined by a four-part mixed choir and, as the only instruments, a string orchestra, a harp, and an organ. The lyrical foundation is however varied in multifarious ways. Saint-Saëns contrasts the narrative recitative with folk-like
melodies, charming instrumental harmonies, and an uncomplicated choral writing style.
To bring the SACD up to a normal length it was combined with the mass op. 4 recorded in studio. Saint-Saëns' first sacred work, which was written in 1856 and performed for the first time in Paris the following year, indeed shows the remarkable maturity of the only twenty-one-year-old composer, but also displays the clear influences of historicism, which played an important role in the church music of that time, and is thus more strongly obliged to tradition than later works. Discernible are Gregorian elements, Palestrina-like polyphony, Bach-like counterpoint. Saint-Saëns added the movement „O Salutaris" from the Corpus Christi liturgy to the liturgical Mass text. The Mass was first performed on 21 March 1857 in St. Merry's Church, Paris, where Saint-Saëns was employed as organist. Franz Liszt thought highly of the work and compared it to „a wonderful, Gothic cathedral in which Bach could have had his chapel."