Saint-Saëns was twenty-three when he wrote his Oratorio de Noël and it has all the freshness of a young composer eager to prove himself. He had been organist of the fashionable Church of the Madeleine in Paris for just a year – a prestigious position – and the Oratorio was a major undertaking for his second Christmas there. The work was written in just twelve days between 4 and 15 December 1858.

Despite Saint-Saëns's efforts in overseeing the publication of the Oratorio, it had various mistak...