Kraus: Sacred Works - Miserere, Requiem, Stella coeli

Deutscher Kammerchor, La Stagione Frankfurt, Schneider, Michael

CPO 777 409-2

Joseph Martin Kraus was born in the same year as Mozart and died only one year after him; like him, he was also a musician who revealed his extraordinary talent at an early age. It is only in recent years, however, that Kraus has again begun to receive somewhat more attention as a multitalented artistic personality. Born in Miltenberg am Main, Kraus enjoyed a career that took him to Stockholm as court music director to the music-loving King Gustavus III. In their originality his sacred compositions tower above the conventional liturgical repertoire produced in Southern Germany during the second half of the eighteenth century. He focused his energies on the full exploitation of tone-color resources. In his Miserere he skillfully endows the narrative sequence of verses with a dramaturgy animated by the alternation of instrumental groupings and compositional styles. In his Requiem he again demonstrates a very individual expressive will. Even though Kraus, a Stürmer und Dränger who was barely twenty years old at the time, must be classified as a beginner, he was not a minor leaguer – and the moving effect produced by his works continues to be irresistible even today.

CD

25.08.2009

761203740925