Palácio Das Necessidades

After listening to this inspired oratorio, it’s clear why Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was recognized in his day as Franz Joseph Haydn’s primary competitor. It’s a lovely work, loaded with drama, style, and expertly crafted instrumental and vocal writing. From the dramatic dotted rhythms and churning string sequences of the overture to the resounding spirited choral fugue finale, Dittersdorf’s music masterfully propels his grandiose subject matter, commanding attention more profoundly than any recorded vocal/choral work in recent memory (and this one’s more than two and a half hours long!).

"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.

Einer der Höhepunkte des Bachfestes Leipzig 2014 im 300. Geburtsjahr Carl Philip Emanuel Bachs war die Aufführung und Einspielung seines Oratoriums "Die Israeliten in der Wüste" mit den Experten für historische Aufführungspraxis des Neuen Orchesters & Chorus Musicus Köln unter der Leitung von Christoph Spering.

Andreas Romberg numbers among music history’s forgotten composers. He was celebrated as a violin virtuoso and a composer, but this did not keep him from falling through the safety net into historiographical obscurity with its often-unjust judgments. We are recording his symphonies over time in the hope that he will receive more attention as a composer. Bonn, Hamburg, and Gotha were his career stations. In 1793, while still in Bonn, he wrote his Messiah, and in 1800 he also performed it in Hamburg, his new place of work. He without doubt regarded it as his favorite and main work, and over the years he repeatedly revised it. klassik-heute. com in April 2008: »Some marvelously atmospheric delights that do not fade away after a single hearing – of which I have been happy to convince myself in what so far have been three complete ‘sessions.’«

Johann Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) was a German Baroque composer with over 1,500 published works to his credit, yet hardly anyone recognizes his name anymore. He worked as Kapellmeister at the Hesse court in Darmstadt for almost fifty years, composing both secular and religious music, and he might have gotten the music director's post in Leipzig that went to J.S Bach instead had Graupner's patron allowed him leave.

Johann Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) was a German Baroque composer with over 1,500 published works to his credit, yet hardly anyone recognizes his name anymore. He worked as Kapellmeister at the Hesse court in Darmstadt for almost fifty years, composing both secular and religious music, and he might have gotten the music director's post in Leipzig that went to J.S Bach instead had Graupner's patron allowed him leave.

When Schumann was offered the post of music director in Düsseldorf in 1850, his first main project was to perform the St. John Passion, which had never been presented there, in April 1851: “It is much bolder, more powerful, and more poetic than the St. Matthew. This one seems to me not to be free of diffuseness and to be exceedingly long, but the other – how compact, how thoroughly genial, and of what art!” Robert Schumann