This double album assembles two oratorios and three cantatas for the feasts of Easter and Ascension.

Often overshadowed by the Christmas Oratorio, the two oratorios presented here rely on a form of dramaturgy absent from the cantatas; whether directly portraying the protagonists of the Passion of Christ (Easter Oratorio) or having the Evangelist narrate events, Bach draws on the music of earlier cantatas to produce two works whose beauty and coherence Philippe Herreweghe has brought out more convincingly than any other interpreter.