Schaum´s German

In einer Welt, in der man auf einer Wolke durch die Luft reisen kann und Pianos Cocktails mixen können, je nachdem welche Töne man anschlägt, lebt der wohlhabende Fantast und Tagträumer Colin. Er liebt Partys, Jazz und den Müßiggang, doch eines fehlt ihm zu seinem großen Glück - die wahre Liebe. Da hilft es auch nichts, dass sein Koch und Vertrauter Nicolas versucht, ihn mit kulinarischen Skurrilitäten aufzuheitern. Als Colin auf einer Geburtstagsparty die wunderschöne Chloé trifft, wendet sich das Blatt: Sie verlieben sich und feiern bald eine schillernd-schräge Hochzeit. Doch bereits auf der Hochzeitsreise erkrankt Chloé an einer rätselhaften Krankheit: Eine Seerose wächst in ihrer Lunge. Die Ärzte sind ratlos und nichts scheint zu helfen. Aber Colin ist entschlossen die Liebe seines Lebens zu retten, koste es, was es wolle.

On occasion of the 300th anniversary of the first performance of Handel’s Brockes-Passion in Hamburg (4 April 1719), Accent present a 2017 live performance at the Göttingen Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings conducting the Festivalorchestra Göttingen, the NDR Chor and an excellent cast of singers such as the Dutch soprano Johannette Zomer and the young German tenor Sebastian Kohlhepp (as Evangelist). Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ passion text is one of the most frequently set in the history of music and was the only German text used by George Frideric Handel as the basis for a large-scale sacred composition. The original score was lost but the surviving version, which was hand-copied by Johann Sebastian Bach, makes it possible for us to hear this 1719 oratorio today.

The Brockes-Passion can be considered the archetype of the German Passion oratorio. As such, it served as a model and source ofinspiration for famous later masterpieces, enjoying uninterrupted popularity throughout the 18th century when no less than 11 composers, including Handel and Telemann, set it to music. The superb version by Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739) is not only the first but also adheres most closely to the great rhetorical power and rich changes of affects of the poets text. In German literary history, Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747) is known above all for his innovative role during the second quarter of the 18th century.

Celebrating the 300th anniversary of Handel's great Brockes-Passion: a long-neglected masterpiece by this most brilliant composer, from a libretto by his friend, Barthold Brockes, one of Germanys leading poets. The culmination of two years of scholarly research by a team of scholars and musicologists from the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, King's College London, Open University and more, working alongside Music Director Richard Egarr and editor Leo Duarte. Consulting 15 manuscript sources from 11 collections in 5 countries, this is the most substantial edition of this work yet, including as appendices extra movements and Charles Jennens' partial English translation in their world premiere recordings.