Director of music to the Darmstadt court, Graupner's output almost equalled that of Telemann and certainly surpassed that of J.S. Bach: he composed a number of operas, many concertos and orchestral suites, chamber music, keyboard works and more than 1400 church cantatas. Almost the entire body of Graupner’s work has survived in autograph but hardly any of his compositions were published during his lifetime or afterwards. Fortunately they were not burnt after his death as he himself wished, but were the subject of a legal dispute between the landgrave and Graupner’s heirs. Thanks to this the complete archive was taken to a place outside the city and thus spared a second burning, as very little of the old city of Darmstadt would be spared during the Second World War. Graupner actually composed no oratorios, for the simple reason that the Darmstadt liturgy did not call for them. However, Florian Heyerick presents this collection of Christmas, Advent and New Year's Day cantatas as a possible liturgical and musical whole, thereby giving it the somewhat daring title of a ‘Christmas Oratorio’. Heyerick has devoted his doctoral thesis to these emerging compositions and in this recording he brings together several of the Christmas cantatas from the Graupner canon. These works are real jewels and their rediscovery completes a chapter in music history.