Bach's Christmas Oratorio is a lengthy work consisting of six cantatas that were written to be performed during a series of services at St Thomas's, Leipzig, between Christmas Day and Epiphany in 1734-5. They were not intended to be heard in one go, and for practical reasons they rarely are these days either. Robert King's reasonable decision for this programme was to select the first three cantatas and the last.

Alternating narrative with reflection, the Oratorio is still substantial even in this form. One of the problems with this performance was a lack of continuity due to pauses between movements that meant momentum was lost, and of dynamism within movements when King's tempos proved sluggish. The final chorale of the first cantata, with its obbligato trumpets and drums, needed to move more decisively, and the opening pastoral symphony of the second, which depicts the shepherds abiding in the fields, sounded as if they would never make it to their feet.

This lack of impetus was a pity, because the choral singing was disciplined and well balanced - if a bit low on punch in the more celebratory numbers - and the orchestral playing mostly spry and alert, though the baroque oboes and trumpets proved recalcitrant, as they sometimes can.

The soloists were a mixed bunch. Soprano Claire Booth was short on words and used phrases unimaginatively but her tone was clear. Contralto Hilary Summers has one of the finest voices in this repertoire, and her capacious tone was impressive, even if she didn't sound at her best in this acoustic, or indeed at the speeds allotted her by King. Bass David Wilson-Johnson was his usual affable and direct self, and made a tasty dramatic morsel out of Herod's brief but sinister appearance, while James Gilchrist's verbally incisive Evangelist demonstrated imaginative vocal colour.