v Neumann

Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ text for the passion oratorio, later named after him, is among the best-known Passion librettos of the early 18th century. This version is the first recording on CD of the work based on the copy made by J S Bach himself. It is distinguished from the better-known version by a different text for the opening chorus.

"Bach saved my life… You always feel in his music that God is present somehow." This is not empty declamation. It is a deep confession of harpsichord player Zuzana Růžičková, a survivor of the inconceivable horrors of the Nazi concentration camps of Terezín, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. She always felt that Bach's music was one of the things that helped her survive. In a certain way this is also true the other way around: Zuzana Růžičková gave new life to Bach's music by persistently promoting the use of harpsichord (as opposed to commonly used piano) in performing Bach repertoire in concert. She was the very first person to initiate the gigantic project of recording the complete harpsichord concertos composed by Bach.

Like so many Bohemian composers, the eastern Bohemian Johann Baptist Vanhal had moved to Vienna early in his career and can thus be viewed as a member of the select core of composers consisting of Haydn, Salieri, Mozart and Beethoven, to whom we owe Viennese classicism. The Missa Solemnis is noteworthy not just for it's quality and opulence, but surprises the listener above all with three prolonged concert solo arias. The works are beautifully performed on this release by soloists Natalia Melnik and Marta Benackova, as well as the Prager Kammerchor and Prager Kammerorchester.

Four world premiere recordings of little-known cantatas and chamber music by Telemann, brilliantly played by experts in the field of early music. „Soprano Dorothee Mields sings like an angel, tenor Benoît Haller’s voice is warm and agile and melodious, the instrumental soloists are all world class, and their ensemble colleagues are equally informed technically and in sync musically. And the sound is a perfect balance of intimate setting and room resonance that allows the uninhibited natural timbres of voices and instruments to be heard. And to all of this, we add the benefit of some terrific Telemann works that few listeners will have heard – and that even experienced Baroque fans will not immediately recognize as coming from this composer.“ (Classics Today)

Among the sacred works for voice and orchestra that feature in the present release, only the Requiem has any bearing on the duties that Fauré performed as choirmaster and organist at the Madeleine in Paris between 1877 and 1906. Practically all of the works that he wrote for the Madeleine included an organ accompaniment. Fauré found his duties at the church constricting. Even when he wrote his Requiem, which strikes such a singular note, it was to distance himself from the sort of liturgical music with which he was habitually involved. “As to my Requiem,” he explained in 1902 with reference to his most famous work, “I have also instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write something different.” We should not forget that Fauré did not believe in God, which perhaps prevented him from blossoming as a church composer. Despite this, the present programme explores an interesting facet of his work.

If The Secret is indeed the title of a melody that Gabriel Fauré composed on a poem rather cutesy Armand Silvestre, it does not seem that it inspired the title of the present album entitled "The Secret Fauré", taken rather in a meaning of scarcity and intimacy. Ivor Bolton, at the head of the Basel Symphony Orchestra where he is the artistic director, offers a very subtle choice composed of extracts from stage or stage music: Caligula, Pénélope, Shylock, Pelléas and Mélisande, mixed with some melodies orchestrated by Fauré or more probably by his friends, like Charles Koechlin. Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, the new international queen of bel canto, lends her voice to Fauré's discreet art. Forgotten his many Traviata Berlin, MET or Vienna, for the benefit of a song of a modest limpidity. At his side, the tenor Benjamin Bruns and the women's choir Balthasar Neumann complete this disc which dedicates a certain French spirit seen elsewhere, made of a mixture of carefree, discreet elegance and a je-ne- know what futility.