Telemann: Der Tod Jesu

Kobow, Jan, Magdeburger Kammerchor, Mertens, Klaus, Mields, Dorothee, Remy, Ludger , Schwarz, Britta, Telemann-Kammerorchester Michaelstein

CPO 999720

"Der Tod Jesu," a Passion oratorio based on the text by Karl Wilhelm Ramler belongs in the series of Georg Philipp Telemann's wonderful works for the elderly. first performed in Hamburg in 1755, it unfortunately - and unjustly - never achieved the fame of the oratorio on the same text by Carl Heinrich Graun, performed only a week later in Berlin. Telemann was on friendly terms with the much younger Graun, and it is quite possible that the simultaneous composition of the same text was a deliberate competition between the two musicians. This would be supported by the exchange of both works in Hamburg and Berlin one year later. Be that as it may - the old master showed the younger one quite a lesson here! His music is more austere, but also more characteristic than the "sensitive" and fashionable Graun, full of surprising, even drastic harmonies and - despite the most sparing instrumentation - full of unheard-of sound images. All this is in the very best hands with Ludger Rémy and his Telemann-Kammerorchster Michaelstein. Our star cast of singers: Dorothee Mields, Britta Schwarz, Jan Kobow, Klaus Mertens and the Magdeburg Chamber Choir.

CD x 1

CPO

7/26/00

761203972029