Telemann Hermann Max

Last year’s Magdeburg Festival Days were marked by an extraordinary event: the revival of Telemann’s last known extant passion composition, the St. Luke Passion of 1748, by the Rheinische Kantorei and the Kleines Konzert under Hermann Max. In the mid-nineteenth century the autograph made its way to Berlin, where it today is preserved as the only source for this composition. The historical edition was prepared especially for the modern repeat performance in Magdeburg. Every four years Telemann returned to the same passion narrative, always employing the language of music to occupy himself in new ways with the gospel message of each of the four evangelists.

M.​ Hengelbrock in KLASSIK heute: "Es ist dieser Facettenreichtum, den Hermann Max in jeder seiner Tele- mann-Einspielungen gut herausarbeitet.​ Seine Inter- pretationen meiden jedwede Plakativität, ohne undeut- lich oder gar indifferent zu sein.​"

Hermann Max keeps on impressing me with his interpretations (I've heard his Bach Matthew passion and liked it very much). In this case he brings together a reverent but emotionally filled production of just a few of the many, many, many Telemann choral pieces that have been neglected over the years. Special praise goes to the counter-tenor Cordier, the tenor Wilfried Jochens, and the two basses Wimmer and Shreckenberg.

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.

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.

"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.

Hermann Max betont mit seinem vorzüglichen Ensemble die dominante Seite der Musik mit einem kammermusikalisch sensiblen Klangbild von hoher Transparenz und Plastizität. Ebenso klar und präzise musizieren auch die hervorragenden Vokalsolisten.

George Philipp Telemann was a composer whose creative powers continued undiminished through his old age of eighty six years. The last decade of his life witnessed an astonishing creative surge, perhaps comparable only to that of Verdi. It was then that the eighty-year-old, with all the benefits of mature mastery at his command, penned some of his most beautiful vocal works. The oratorio "The Delivered Israel" is a work from this period.