Telemann / Grychtolik / Otto - Sacred Arias - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Alex Potter - praised by the press as Incha rising star in the world of countertenorsInch - interprets sacred works by Telemann for cpo on this album. The setting of Psalm 6 continues to be thoroughly obliged to the tone of the sacred concertos of the seventeenth century associated with names such as Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Rosenmüller, and Johann Schelle. However, even though this psalm setting entitled InchAch, Herr strafe mich nichtInch very much resembles similar works by older authors, it nevertheless displays a very special aura. Accompanied by two violins and basso continuo, an affectively nuanced narrative of a soul plagued by fear and hoping for the end of it's torments is heard. The Missa in B minor is similar in style to the music of the psalm; it is what is known as a Lutheran »short mass,« which with it's Kyrie and Gloria merely consists of two compositional complexes. All the numbers comprising InchMe miserumInch concern the faithful soul, which tells it's story, is aware of it's insufficiency but does not yield to despair, and therefore is able to register it's experience of faith. A sonata and two fugues round off the album.

Hamburg marked an important year in it's history in 1762. The city's large St. Michael's Church had been destroyed by fire in 1760, and twelve years later the magnificent new Baroque structure (as yet without a tower) was dedicated. This event was celebrated as an official state ceremony, and of course Georg Philipp Telemann, the city's music director, who by then was eighty-one years old, had to supply the music for it. Aware of the great importance of this event, he produced one of his most magnificent and most expressive scores with an ensemble including six double-choral trumpets and timpani. He wrote Der Tag des Gerichts, the great oratorio of his old age, during the same year, and his dedication music is situated on this same high musical level.

Telemann / Armonico / Antonini - Telemann [COMPACT DISCS] date 01/27/2017