Melde Gehorsamst, Das Ja!

J.S. Bach’s talent seems to flow in his grandson’s blood at least as strongly as in any of his sons. Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach’s two symphonies (as well as the vocal works featured here) inhabit the sound-world of mid- to late Mozart, albeit without the brilliance (in every sense of the word). This Bach’s wind writing is tasteful, and makes good use of the (then) newly-arrived clarinet. The Andante of the C major symphony is quite beautiful, with a dolefully sweet oboe solo throughout the movement. The period strings of Das Kleine Konzert are lively, clean, and in tune, although the violin soloist is not quite up to the rapid passage-work at the end of the G major symphony.

Anstatt mit einer glücklichen Hochzeit zu enden, beginnt die romantische Komödie Das hält kein Jahr..! mit einer: Nat (Rose Byrne und Josh (Rafe Spall) gehören einfach zusammen. Sie geben sich das Ja-Wort und müssen kurz darauf feststellen, dass das erste Jahr nach der Ehe eine Menge an Desillusionierungen mit sich bringt. Vom rosafarbenen Traum vom Eheglück keine Spur, im Alltag sind sie einfach zu unterschiedlich. Ihre Ehe wirkt auf beide eher so, als seien sie zwar die Richtigen füreinander, aber eben zum falschen Zeitpunkt miteinander liiert. Alles wird noch komplizierter, als zwei Menschen (Simon Baker als Guy und Anna Faris als Chloe, Joshs Verflossene) in ihr Leben treten, mit denen sie eine Menge gemeinsam haben.

Last year’s Magdeburg Festival Days were marked by an extraordinary event: the revival of Telemann’s last known extant passion composition, the St. Luke Passion of 1748, by the Rheinische Kantorei and the Kleines Konzert under Hermann Max. In the mid-nineteenth century the autograph made its way to Berlin, where it today is preserved as the only source for this composition. The historical edition was prepared especially for the modern repeat performance in Magdeburg. Every four years Telemann returned to the same passion narrative, always employing the language of music to occupy himself in new ways with the gospel message of each of the four evangelists.

Blue sound. Deep focus. Encompassment. This is what awaits the listener on this recording. Not compression or complex harmonies, rather the sound characterizes this recording. The tone, the sound here is carried by the spirit of internalization. The silence between the notes connects. The album is a search for simplicity and the essential, which looks inward and decelerates the listener.

Derek Scott, born in Birmingham in 1950, has an international reputation as an historian of the British music hall and other forms of light entertainment. But he is an outstanding composer in his own right, his music treading a fine line between a very English whimsy and a profoundly felt and natural response to his (often Celtic) subject matter. These works reveal a master craftsman and natural tunesmith, who manages to unite good humour, unerring technique and deep feeling in music of immediate appeal. His two symphonies – originally written for brass band – embody a return to the formal, Classical clarity of Haydn, though expressed with the satisfyingly beefy textures of the modern orchestra. He lists among his influences Shostakovich and Sibelius and, less predictably, The Beatles and The Kinks.