Roderich Ptak: Die Maritime Seidenstraße

Der Wiederaufbau der Dresdner Frauenkirche hat in ganz Europa eine breite öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit gefunden. Den „Klangspuren“ dieser Kirche, der eigens für sie komponierten Musik nachzugehen, ist das Anliegen dieser CD, auf der Kantaten von Homilius zu Himmelfahrt, Exaudi, Pfingsten und Trinitatis erstmals eingespielt werden, in einer Farbigkeit, wie sie nur wenige kennen.

The rebuilding of the Dresden Frauenkirche has gained widespread public attention throughout Europe and in the USA. Recently the bells were dedicated in a formal ceremony and the church was crowned with its ornamental tower. The present CD is dedicated to discovering the “traces of sound” through the music which was composed for this church. When the Kreuzkirche, the main church of the city, was destroyed in July 1760, the Frauenkirche moved into the forefront as the first parish church in the old town of Dresden. Gottfried August Homilius is considered the most significant and compositionally productive Kreuzkantor. His work also found a widespread acceptance outside the capital of Saxony. Although he was music director of the Kreuzkirche, due to its destruction he spent three quarters of his tenure working in the Frauenkirche, where previously he had been the organist for 13 years. Most of his works were written directly for this church. The present CD features four festive cantatas for the feast of Whitsun in interpretations by the internationally renowned Dresdner Kreuzchor under their conductor, Roderich Kreile. The Kreuzchor is accompanied by the Dresdner Barockorchester.

Der Wiederaufbau der Dresdner Frauenkirche hat in ganz Europa eine breite öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit gefunden. Den „Klangspuren“ dieser Kirche, der eigens für sie komponierten Musik nachzugehen, ist das Anliegen dieser CD, auf der Kantaten von Homilius zu Himmelfahrt, Exaudi, Pfingsten und Trinitatis erstmals eingespielt werden, in einer Farbigkeit, wie sie nur wenige kennen.

You have to look at the German-language tracklist to see what you're getting here: not two separate "Creation Masses," but the late Haydn Mass in B flat major, H. 22/13 ("Schöpfungsmesse"), composed in 1801, along with a mass by Salzburg-based composer Luigi Gatti. This is not an original work but an adaptation of Haydn's oratorio The Creation, with texts from the mass fitted to musically and liturgically appropriate melodies. This work, rediscovered only recently, was apparently one of a number of sacred adaptations of secular works that appeared around this time.