UMG - Ziesak / Stradella - Christmas Cantatas - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In 1677 Johann Schelle became the music director at the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, succeeding his teacher Sebastian Knupfer and preceding Johann Kuhnau in this post. His own pupils included important composers like Johann Christoph Graupner, Johann David Heinichen, Reinhard Keiser, Johann Theodor Roemhildt and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Schelle is known to have produced more than 180 compositions, of which unfortunately only 48 have survived. His importance lies mainly in his chorale cantatas and in the combination of Biblical texts and freely written sacred poetry he employed in his more advanced sacred concertos- an early form of what would later become the Lutheran church cantata. The present gathers together Schelle's known compositions for Advent and Christmas. In doing so it also sheds light on the musical role of the St. Thomas Choir in Leipzig's musical culture during the final third of the 17th century.

Album Tracks 1. Erhöhet Die Tore Der Welt 2. Ja, Zion, Freue Dich! 3. Hosianna Davids Sonne 4. Du König Der Ehren, Jesu Christ 5. Kündlich Groß Ist Das Gottselige Geheimnis 6. Geheimnisvolle Worte 7. Der Sohn Des Vaters 8. Dies Geheimnis FÜHRT Und Treibt Uns 9. Gib Uns, O Jes 10. Siehe, Finsternis Bedecket Das Erdenreich 11. Der Hölle Macht 12. Sing Die Größte Aller Nächte 13. Wer Kann Des Herren Lieb Ermessen? 14. Ihr Armen Freuet Euch 15. Ich Lag in Tiefer Todesnacht 16. Ehre Sei Gott in Der Höhe 17. Beglückte Zeit 18. Jauchzet Itzt Mit Frohem Herzen 19. Wohlan, Es Hat Der Held 20. Heut Schleust Er Wieder Auf Die TÜR 21. Jauchze, Du Tochter Zion 22. Auf, Lasset Uns Der Höchsten Lieb 23. Gottlob, Das Himmelreich Ist Nah 24. Immanuel, Mein König 25. Tröstet Euch, Gefallne Sünder 26. Sei Mir Willkommen, Edler Gast

Our most recent Telemann album is a special highlight for the Christmas season! It brings together three Christmas oratorios from Telemann's Oratorischer Jahrgang for the church year 1730/31 and a cantata from the annual cycle Musicalisches Lob Gottes printed in score form in Nuremberg in 1744. The oratorios are new discoveries and premiere recordings. Even if the works concerned are of cantata length, the term InchOratorioInch is in this case perfectly justified. Not only the soprano, alto, and other vocal parts sing but also personified allegories such as Faith, Hope, and Love. Telemann's musical realization of the poetic sources of the writer and musician Albrecht Jacob Zell is distinguished by great imagination and subtle artistry. The affections and emotions contained in the texts penned by Zell and the Biblical texts inserted by him in the arias and choruses are developed logically and with great feeling here Telemann employs and combines the whole spectrum of compositional techniques at his command. Telemann's opulent settings were made to order for the rich resources of Hamburg's church music, for which he had available eight vocalists as well as some twenty instrumentalists.