The legendary Christmas album recorded by Capella Antiqua Munich for MPS in 1970 presents early Christmas chants in various settings for choir and historical accompanying instruments. Capella Antiqua Munich was established under its director Konrad Ruhland in 1963, bringing together a choir and instrumental ensemble to pioneer in the field of historical performance practice. The ensemble was one of the first to be dedicated to this purist artistic concept. In terms of sound quality, MPS Records was the ideal recording partner. Many of Capella Antiqua Munich’s recordings with MPS became benchmark recordings.
Most notably, the choir's recording of Gregorian chorales is considered legendary to this day. The Christmas album by the whole ensemble — choir and orchestra — is less well known, but by no means less evocative. There is great diversity of expression, with a variety of musical forces following one another in succession: a cappella choir, tenor, soprano, vielle and trombone produce an evocative musical journey through historical Christmas chants, including In natali domini (at the birth of our Lord), Christum wir sollen loben schon (we should praise Christ highly) and En natus est Emmanuel (Lo! Emmanuel is born). The reproduction of the album on CD and LP is of audiophile quality, taken directly from the original master tape.
