Recordings
Henry, Derrick
A TELENANN PASSION WORLDLY YET COMPELLING WE HAVE strange misconceptions about the musical Baroque. Ask someone to name a piece by Bach, and the likely answer will be one of the six Brandenburg...
...The orchestra, the Boston-based Banchetto Musicale, now in its eighth year, plays exclusively on Baroque instruments or copies thereof...
...The chorus may be a trifle unpolished and raw-sounding, but their efforts are consistently vital...
...a decision was made to cut one number, the soprano aria "Schonste Freudin," due to performance difficulties...
...Luke Passion, for example, lasts about ninety minutes...
...Matthew Passion can easily run upwards of three hours...
...Bach's Passions are consequently grandly scaled, deeply reverential, profound, Telemann's less devout but perhaps more human...
...Telemann's orchestration is also considerably less complex...
...Telemann had virtual control of Hamburg's musical life from his arrival on the scene in 1721 until his death in 1767...
...Tempos are uniformly convincing...
...There are but four soloists, sixteen choral members, and an orchestra of fifteen...
...This St...
...Compare this with Bach's five (two surviving) and Handel's two...
...210, Hanssler Verlag, Stuttgart, 1966...
...Telemann rarely uses instruments soloistically...
...The 1744 St...
...Following a Hamburg tradition passed down by his predecessor Joachim Gerstenbiit-tel, Telemann did not restrict himself to the St...
...One can readily understand Why Telemann was widely regarded by his contemporaries as the greatest German composer of his age...
...True, Telemann, by far the most prolific composer of his time, wrote something approaching one thousand suites, concertos, and miscellaneous instrumental pieces (Telemann's N music is far from being thoroughly catalogued, and as in the case of most Baroque composers much has been lost...
...Undoubtedly a large part of this Passion's powerful impression stems from the first-rate performance it receives here...
...In other words, when we think of the Baroque, we usually think of instrumental music...
...Ask someone to name a piece by Bach, and the likely answer will be one of the six Brandenburg Concertos...
...For sheer quantity, Telemann forms a class by himself...
...Particularly stunning-and decidedly unusual from the normally conservative Passion perspective - is a bravura aria for Jesus (traditionally Jesus was restricted to recitative, and to the Gospel text), "Ihr werdet mich sehen mit feurigen Flammen" ("You will see me with fiery flames...
...Luke Passion, cleverly timed both for Easter week and Telemann's birthday tercentenary...
...This aria possesses such exquisite refinement and melting beauty that one is drawn to it again and again...
...Matthew Passion and the 1759 St...
...mention Vivaldi, and the response will probably be the group of concertos known collectively as the Four Seasons...
...Neither Ray DeVoll nor Karl Dan Sorensen possess sensuous voices (Sorensen's is in fact rather dry), but both these tenors convey considerable stylistic acumen and textual sensitivity...
...Moreover, it is to the best of my knowledge the first Telemann Passion to be recorded with period instruments, and is surely the most stylish and satisfying re-creation of a Telemann Passion yet committed to disc...
...John and St...
...Consider the 1744 St...
...Moreover, he used a different poetic text each time...
...It demonstrates the high level of achievement in "authentic" Baroque performance in this country, it offers a new, deeper perspective on Telemann's accomplishment, and it provides an alternative view of the Passion, one both engaging and moving...
...He wrote more than fifty Passions, of which perhaps half that number have survived (only five are available in modern editions, alas...
...But he also wrote some three thousand motets and cantatas, about forty operas, more than fifty Passions, plus a healthy number of oratorios, funeral and wedding pieces, and other occasional works...
...The tenor aria "Du, o ewiges Erbarmen" ("You, Oh Eternal Compassion") achieves real poignance through its piercing dissonances and expressive appoggiaturas...
...Telemann utilizes his remarkable descriptive powers to vividly convey such phrases as "schandlichsten Verraterei" ("vile treachery") and "schmeichelnden Lachen" ("flattering laughter...
...This is a thrillingly dramatic number, concerto-like and highly rhythmic, with wide leaps in the voices and rapid scale figures in the orchestra...
...Telemann creates enormous tension in his "Kreuzige" ("Crucify") chorus by having each voice quickly enter in imitation a step higher than the last, thus forming some wrenching dissonant clusters, though, curiously, he dissipates the accumulated tension by ending the chorus homophoni-cally, in sweet C major...
...DERRICK HENRYng...
...In sum, Telemann's 1744 St...
...This permitted personal commentary on various elements of the Passion story...
...Before going into performance specifics, it would be advantageous to consider the nature of this work and Telemann's position in the history of the Baroque Passion...
...If Telemann is here at his most Vivaldian, he appears at his most Bachian in the tenor aria "Holdselige Worte" ("Most gracious words"), sung by one of the two criminals crucified together with Christ...
...Some three densely packed pages are given over to Telemann recordings (including a disc of instrumental music by Banchetto Musicale on Titanic'TI-36), but of the many listings only two (the comic opera Pimpinone and five albums of cantatas) are allotted to vocal music (more vocal Telemann is available by mail order through the Musical Heritage Society...
...Yet the Baroque was really a vocal age...
...Readers interested in pursuing Telemann and the history of the Passion in more detail are directed to Basil Smallman's excellent study The Background of Passion Music (Dover paperback...
...Fortunately this deplorable situation has been partially rectified by a superb new release from the enterprising if oddly named company Titanic Records of the composer's 1744 setting of the St...
...There is hardly a weak number in the score...
...Even more tuneful, with scarcely a trace of darker emotions, is the irresistible soprano aria "Wie sich ein einz'ges Liiftchen regt" ("As a tiny breath of air stirs"), delightfully frisky, even frivolous...
...Susan Larson boasts the greatest sheer talent, with a fresh, agile voice, a fine sense of drama and style, and some masterly ornamentation, particularly in her final aria...
...Tele-mann's 1744 St...
...The explanation is simple: by this time the most common musical Passion settings were so-called oratorio Passions, where the familiar Gospel text would be amplified by non-Biblical poetry for the arias and chorales...
...Like Bach in his St...
...Its bouncy, taunting, mercurial style is totally alien to Bach's somber Passion world...
...Matthew Passions, both written in the 1720s, exemplify our primary notion of an eighteenth-century Passion setting...
...with the exception of the non-biblical chorus "Ach, Klage" ("Oh, lament") none of Telemann's choral numbers lasts longer than about a minute...
...Confusing...
...there are countless lovely details of phrasing, yet nothing is exaggerated...
...You would never know it through the Schwann catalog of domestically available recordings...
...DERRICK HENRY...
...Telemann, on the other hand, was every bit as much a man of the theater as of the church, and took pains to be in the forefront of the latest musical styles...
...We identify Telemann with his suites and concertos, Pachelbel with his ubiquitous Canon (actually a set of variations on a ground bass...
...We have had Telemann Passions on record before, notably Kurt Redel's long-deleted mid-sixties tapings for Philips of the 1730 St...
...Most run only thirty seconds or so...
...The forces are appropriately small...
...Luke Passion is a work of considerable skill and substance, full of worldly wisdom...
...a performance of Bach's St...
...The poet for Telemann's 1744 St...
...Matthew Passion, by far the most musically popular of the four Gospel versions of the Passion story, but took care to set each version in recurring biblical sequence, beginning with his St...
...Telemann's turba choruses, too, are terser than Bach's...
...Bach for most of his life was primarily a church composer (he never wrote an opera), a great consolidator rather than an innovator...
...Telemann's Passions are much shorter, much simpler, far more theatrical...
...Bach's polyphonically and harmonically rich chorale settings give way in Telemann to far more straightforward music, intended for congregational participation (an aspect of this music lost in today's concert performances...
...A measure of their expertise may be gleaned from the fact that this album preserves a live performance, . taped in Boston's Jordan Hall on March 28, 1980...
...Luke Passion's first aria, "Die freundlichstein Kusse" ("The Friendliest Kisses") for soprano...
...Matthew Passion of 1722...
...This is an important release...
...One of his many duties was to compose a new Passion each year for Easter week performance in these five churches...
...Luke Passion calls only for strings, an oboe alternating with an oboe d'amore, a flute, and continue Gone are Bachian arias with elaborate obbligato instrumental parts...
...He served as director of the Opera, supervisor of the various annual civic ceremonies, cantor at the Johanneum, and musical director of the five parish churches...
...At any rate, this new Titanic album is the only Telemann Passion you are likely to find in your local record shop...
...By no means, however, should this St...
...Matthew Passion, Telemann consistently frames the words of Jesus with a three-part string accompaniment, but whereas Bach resorts to a slow-moving chordal "halo" effect, Telemann invariably composes melodic filigree against Jesus's solo lines...
...Luke Passion is unknown...
...Luke Passion has been published in an edition by Hans Grischkat [Die Kantate nr...
...This is in a way unfortunate, for while these sublime works unquestionably represent the pinnacle of Passion composition, they are hardly typical of the age...
...Luke Passion, on the German label Cantate, a performance reported in the British journal Gramophone to be "adequate but little more...
...the same might be said of Vivaldi's forty-six operas, thirty-nine cantatas, and over sixty sacred works, and Handel's forty-plus operas, twenty-odd oratorios, and hundreds of other vocal pieces...
...Luke Passion be construed as a light work...
...Martin Pearlman directs an unman-nered yet highly sympathetic account, very well paced...
...There is also another recording of the 1744 St...
...Sorensen's understated Evangelist gains in impact as the tale progresses...
...James Maddalena uses his resonant tone and fine musicality to create a warmly human portrayal of Jesus...
...Mark Passion (the latter is still available in Germany...
...And one can wish for more opportunities to hear Teletnann's large-scale vocal music...
...Live recording has its disadvantages too...
...Bach's oratorios, Passions, Masses, motets, and well over two hundred cantatas form the bulk and heart of his output...
...But of all the major Baroque composers, it is undoubtedly Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) whose vocal music has been most shamefully neglected...
...AH the soloists are impressive...
...For most readers, Bach's St...
...Sadly, the only book-length treatment of Telemann in English, by Richard Petzoldt (Oxford), is less than satisfactory...
...The sound on my test pressing, while hardly of audiophile quality, is extremely satisfying: clear, thoroughly natural, well-balanced, with excellent spatial qualities and a refreshing lack of gimmickry...
Vol. 108 • April 1981 • No. 8
