Neujahr Konzert 2025

This powerful record brings together two of the most seminal works for viola and orchestra of the twentieth century. Although these pieces are as different as they are similar, together they form a distinct balance of sentiment and execution.

Our collection of previously unknown Christmas oratorios is growing impressively and happily. After Joseph Eybler in October, I can even announce two trouvailles for this month. There is the Christmas Oratorio by Carl Heinrich Graun (1703-1759), the conductor of Frederick the Great. It was only recently found in Washington. A precise dating is not yet possible, but it certainly arose in Graun's pre-Berlin time in Dresden or Braunschweig. However, it is a masterpiece on the threshold of a sensitive style. The well-balanced alternation of melodically accented and contrapuntally rigorous choral movements, of soulful, colorfully orchestrated arias and harmoniously far-reaching recitatives is particularly impressive.

Today it is the Passions of J.S Bach which are most commonly known. The Passion Oratorio by J.S Bach’s nephew, godson and pupil Johann Ernst Bach is lesser known. On this Capriccio re-release his Passion Oratorio is performed alongside an Ode on the 77th Psalm for tenor, chorus and orchestra and a Motet for solo voices, four-part chorus, strings and continuo.

Wie weit komponierende Söhne und Väter stilistisch auseinander liegen können, wird oft an dem Vergleich Johann Sebastians und Johann Christian Bachs demonstriert. Nun, es gibt einen ähnlich gelagerten Fall: Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758) und sein Sohn Carl (1736–1800).

Leopold Anton Kozeluch, often inaccurately and unjustly portrayed as a scheming opponent of Mozart and Haydn, was actually an extraordinarily popular and successful composer during his own lifetime. Already in 1781 Kozeluch had such an outstanding reputation that the Salzburg archbishop offered him the court organist's post left vacant by Mozart. The Bohemian composer's some 250 works include symphonies, piano music, operas, cantatas, string quartets, and a number of oratorios. Moses in Egypt, an oratorio based on the Book of Exodus from the Old Testament, was premiered in the old Burgtheater in 1787.

It is mentioned in almost all biographies of Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach was part of a large family of musicians and at festive gatherings the musical gifts were used to increase the revelry. We know, for example, an occasional piece by Bach about the departure of a brother, in which the wailing of the family who stayed behind, the dangers of the journey and the sound of the post horn (as a sign of the departure of the stagecoach) are portrayed in a humorous way.

A previously unknown contemporary score of the St. Mark Passion falsely ascribed to Johann Heinrich Rolle recently came to light in Brussels. Due to the new identification of the copyist’s hand, a largely original version of Georg Philipp Telemann’s St. Mark’s Passion of 1759 is now available, reflected in this recording. Freshly penned “poetical reflections” were added to the Evangelist’s text. The anonymous, theologically educated author of these reflective arias and accompagnati, who in consultation with the composer also chose the selection of church songs and designed the overall structure of the libretto, coordinated the sacred message of the text with a finely calculated affective dramaturgy.

Throughout his life Telemann collaborated with good poets who prepared sacred texts for him, usually to be set as annual cycles for the church year. This practice enabled him to design each of his annual cycles, as a rule consisting of seventy-two cantatas for each Sunday and feast day, on the basis of a unique overall idea. Annual cycles such as Geistliches Singen und Spielen, the »Annual Cycle in the Oratorio Style« and »Musicalisches Lob Gottes« not only lend expression to the artistic program and ideas of one of the most important sacred music composers of the eighteenth century but also document his deep religiosity.

Johann Heinrich Rolle belongs to the generation of J. S. Bach’s elder sons. Pipped at the post by C. P. E. Bach as Telemann’s successor in Hamburg, Rolle centred his musical life round Berlin and his native Magdeburg. Recitatives, arias, duets and choruses make up this two-part music drama which is both lyrical and on occasion vividly pictorial in its imagery. A fine performance.

"Denn er selbst, der Herr, wird mit einem Feldgeschrei und der Stimme des Erzengels und mit der Posaune Gottes hernieder kommen vom Himmel, und die Toten in Christo werden auferstehen zuerst". Dunkel und drohend lässt Telemann dazu den Donner grollen, den Zorn Gottes. Der Herr, der Richter naht. Es beginnt der Tag des Gerichts. Mit diesen Signalen hebt ein packendes musikalisches Geschehen an, das dem, der sich mit ihm auseinanderzusetzen gewillt ist, eine reiche, symbolgeladene Welt schönster, erfüllender, oft eigenwilliger künstlerischer Bewältigung von Wort und Ton eröffnet.