German Enlightenment

Although frequently classified as an oratorio, C. P. E. Bach's Auferstehung und Himmeelfahrt Jesu is really a cantata. There are no named dramatis personae and it is evident from Emanuel Bach's own comments that he intended the work to have a partly didactic function. He also considered it, in his own words as "pre-eminent among all my vocal works in expression and in the composition". The author of the text was Karl Wilhelm Ramler, an important poet of the German Enlightenment whose texts had earlier attracted Telemann. Ramler and Bach engaged in a close collaboration over the Auferstehung and between Bach's setting of it in 1774 and the eventual publication by Breitkopf in 1787, composer and poet entered into a lively correspondence concerning the details and shape of the cantata. The first performance took place in Hamburg in 1778 when it was warmly received. Many subsequent performances were given culminating in three directed by Mozart in Vienna.

Director David McVicar's original-period vision for this Mozartian gem allows its genius to speak for itself, offering a mesmerising, sensitive outstanding portrayal of Enlightenment-era fascination with the East that is both exquisitely acted and sung, featuring a Konstanze and a Belmonte sung with finesse and bravura and a sensationally voiced Osmin (The Guardian *****). Comic relief in Glyndebourne's brilliant production is provided by beautifully sung live-wire performances of Pedrillo and Blonde, and Robin Ticciati leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment through a restored, authentic rendition of the critical score with lovely fizz and poignant gravitas (The Independent).