Hertel: Die Geburt Jesu Christi, Christmas Oratorio

Kölner Akademie;
Willens, Michael Alexander

CPO 777 809-2

The Kölner Akademie under the conductor Michael Alexander Willens presents a compelling interpretation of the Christmas Oratorio by Johann Wilhelm Hertel. The former »Court and Chapel Composer« at the court of Duke Friedrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hertel composed this cantata between 1777 and 1783 for its sacred concerts. The oratorio came across very well and in the introduction by Franziska Seils to the score published by the ortus musikverlag, we read: »Along with the harmonically highly expressive opening chorus and the simply set chorales on familiar melodies from Christmas songs, the angelic proclamation radiating in trumpet splendor and the fully dimensioned, eight-part concluding chorus certainly also contributed to the popularity of the work. … Various areas of influence interact in Hertel's Christmas cantata: the tradition of the popular lyrical pastoral idyll and the dramatic oratorio, the baroque philosophy of the emotions and the will to symphonic design.«

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

CPO

26-09-2013

761203780921