Broers Verratene Himmel

‘I find myself increasingly occupied with matters of the human soul, its sublimation and spiritual abyss. Certainly my opera The Ocean Betrayed betrays this preoccupation. This music has been to Hades and back, with Monteverdi and myself. ‘Hans-Werner Henze based the story for Das verratene Meer (‘The Sea Betrayed‘) on Japanese writer Yuko Mishima‘s 1963 novel, Gogo no Eiko (‘The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea‘). The book offers an unsettling scenario' in which the struggle for normality is doomed to failure‘. A young widow, Fusako, falls for a merchant navy officer, Ryuji, creating tension with her son, Noboru, who belongs to a violent gang that will exact revenge on the widow‘s lover. Through symphonic interludes, the ‘angry, betrayed sea‘ becomes the drama‘s witness and its narrative voice in Henze‘s painfully dark and brutal opera.

Long out of print, now finally available again: world premiere recordings of the Magnificat (early Leipzig version) as well as the festive music Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes by C. P. E. Bach. A rousing and convincing interpretation by the Basel Madrigalists, L'arpa festante and renowned soloists under the direction of Fritz Näf.Throughout his life, C. P. E. Bach esteemed his Magnificat as one of his most important works. Here it is presented in the rarely heard early Leipzig version from 1749, with which the son wanted to recommend himself as a potential successor to his father in the office of Kantor at St. Thomas's Church. It fulfils all the criteria that the aesthetics of the time demanded of a large-scale sacred composition: grandeur, dignity, polyphonic and concertante choral movements, sensitive and pathetic arias, and a grand concluding double fugue. The festive music Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, on the other hand, was written during Bach's later period as music director in Hamburg.

There was a time when Georg Philipp Telemann was the most difficult cataloging problem in music – so many compositions but no thematic catalog. The discographer in me shied away. But in 1983 Werner Menke compiled a two-volume Telemann Vocal Works Catalog (TVWV), quickly followed by Martin Ruhnke’s three-volume Telemann Works Catalog (TWV) in 1984, 1992, and 1999, which lists only the instrumental works. Brian Robins in another review (30:3) cited TVWV numbers under the other siglum. The TVWV numbers are included in the headnote mainly to suggest how vast the list is. Oddly, considering that most of these works have never been recorded, cpo has already issued another recording of the last cantata (30:3). A late work published in 1759, this Ascension cantata is the setting of an ode by Daniel Schiebeler, employing three trumpets and tympani as well as three flutes. Four soloists each have a movement. This work alone was recorded in 1997.