You can never hear enough Bach at Christmas, so even though the Collegiate Chorale had offered three of the Christmas Oratorio cantatas Tuesday evening at Carnegie Hall, I was right back Thursday for two more at the Metropolitan Museum presented by the chamber orchestra Orpheus. The concert took place in the serene Medieval Sculpture Hall, all decked out for the season with a 20-foot blue spruce, a fabulous, cherubic Neapolitan Baroque crèche, and that imposing Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral at Valladolid that recalls David Reppa’s great gate from the current Metropolitan Opera production of “Don Carlo.”

Orpheus stumbled badly earlier this month with an uncharacteristically unfocused performance of some of Bach’s concertos at Carnegie, so it was heartening to hear they have quickly righted themselves. The ensemble this night was a bit smaller than that for the Brandenburgs and was decidedly more attentive, cohesive, and precise. The longtime conductor of the Chicago Symphony, Fritz Reiner, a notorious martinet, once threatened to make everyone stand at a recording session if they didn’t play more crisply. Here everyone was on their feet for the entire evening, except for the lone cellist and bassoonist. Even organist Paolo Bordignon stood at his console.

The resultant performance was quite lively and distinctive. After hearing the huge chorus Tuesday, it took a little while to adjust to these much smaller surroundings and the accompanying octet of singers, but, considering the heavily reverberant acoustics of the room, the combined sonic effect was as best as could be expected.

First up was Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133, in which Bach sets the rather gentle version of the nativity by hymnist Caspar Ziegler. Although this rendition was quite well done — complete with colorfully descriptive programmatic playing from the Orpheus strings — a problem developed rather quickly. Mezzo-soprano soloist Hai-Ting Chinn sang so wonderfully the early aria Gestrost! (“take comfort”) that she immediately set the bar a little too high for her mates to reach. She possesses a beautifully rounded voice, tones perfectly shaped and sensitively delivered, and she made this aria a memorable one. The following airs and recitatives each had some rather exotic peregrinations of pitch with which to deal and might have been a little more acceptable without such a superb introduction. These pieces were, of course, written for the church, not the concert hall, and we make a somewhat unfair demand on singers when we elevate them to the realm of high art. At the Thomaskirche, a solid, if errant, voice would have been perfectly welcomed.

Next was an instrumental interlude with flutist Susan Palma-Nidel and violinist Eric Wyrick performing the Sonata in G Major, BWV 1038 with cellist Jonathan Spitz, and a seated Mr. Bordignon at the harpsichord providing the continuo. This was a lovely version, and an intelligent way to focus attention in that little room to a smaller, more delicate sound.

Finally, the turbulent and highly dramatic cantata Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, which depicts the battle with, and ultimate defeat of, the devil. Here the combined forces really dug in, producing a major storm of power eventually subsiding into a comforting joy. Bass Richard Lalli was excellent in the Hoellische Schlange section.