Alfredo

Like many education-hungry sons of the European nobility, the 18-year-old Prince Frederick August II embarked on his Grand Tour, which took him from Saxony to Venice in 1716, where he spent almost a year. The large entourage that accompanied the young prince on this trip included such great musicians as the violinist Johann Georg Pisendel, the oboist Johann Christian Richter and the composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. In Venice, an intense exchange with local stars such as Vivaldi developed, in an atmosphere of friendship and competition. On his return to Dresden, August took with him, in addition to Lotti and Veracini, Heinichen, whom he had met in Venice and who became his Kapellmeister. After acclaimed recordings of orchestral works by Handel and Bach, Zefiro now discovers this fascinating repertoire of music by Italians who composed in the French style and Germans who wrote Venetian concertos to impress the prince.

Carl Philipp Emanuel tells us of his father’s talent as a singer: ‘He had a good penetrating voice of wide range and good singing style.’ It is therefore not surprising that the three church cantatas for solo bass are among his most exquisite and personal vocal works. Singing voice and instruments enter into a special relationship in these pieces. The dense yet sensitive polyphony is filled with a warmth and tenderness that seems to bring us closer to Bach, who is otherwise so ‘hermetically closed’. The ‘I’ voice in the poems of cantatas BWV 56 and 82 becomes the composer’s voice. Bach’s solo cantatas are precious gems whose subtle beauties go straight to the listener’s heart.