Das Befreite Israel

Jews and their 'significant others' and non-Jewish friends, the world over, celebrate Pesach (Passover) with a ritual meal at which they join in reading the Haggadah, the prayerful account of the Escape from the Egyptian Captivity, the story of Moses. "Das befreite Israel" (The Liberated Israel) focuses on the 'cinematic' flight of the Jews through the parted waters of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Pharoah's army, and the celebration that follows. It is possibly the only sacred cantata Telemann wrote that makes no mention of Jesus Christ. The librettist was Telemann's friend and frequent collaborator, Friedrich Zachariae (1726-77), a poet-professor in Braunschweig, a member of the circle of poets around Klopstock, a close friend of Moses Mendelssohn and also of Gotthold Lessing, author of the classic drama of religious tolerance Nathan the Wise. (But noooo... Telemann was not a crypto-Judaizer.)

The cantata, first performed in 1759, is wildly celebratory, with five soloists, a 4-part chorus, two flutes, two oboes, oboe d'amore, 2 horns, 2 bassoons (and with really juicy parts!), 3 trumpets, timpani, and (oh yeah) strings!, in 13 movements. Like most of Telemann's public concerts at the Drill House in Hamburg, Das befreite Israel was a "box-office" success, and with good reason. It's a dramatic masterwork, both in text and in music. The two bass soloists on this recording - Klaus Mertens and Ekkehard Abele - sing with the sort of masculine majesty that must have thrilled the proud Hamburgers and that can't fail to thrill an audience anytime, anywhere. Telemann's use of timpani was truly progressive, and the progress was straight toward Haydn and Beethoven. The trumpets and horns? Well, I've been at scores of concerts of baroque music and I can testify that, unless they burble and bleat, the brassy ones always get the loudest applause. Enough to make a reed player jealous and a violist weep!

The music of Befreite Israel is cut from the same musical cloth as Telemann's Lutheran cantatas, but "Der Mai" is something entirely fresh and distinctive, a delicious pastoral idyll that sounds more than halfway to Mozart and even Schubert. It's scored for soprano and bass (Phillis and Daphnis), with flutes, recorders, oboes, bassoons in pairs; trumpet, horn, chalumeau, and strings. There are eight arias, six of them duets. This is music for dancing on the greensward to, all charm and flirtation, a genre of delight that neither Bach nor Zelenka could possibly have composed. Soprano Ingrid Schmithüsen and bass Klaus Mertens convey all the affect of springtime in their voices. The text, a paean to the arrival of Spring, was written by Karl Wilhem Ramler (1725-98), Telemann's favorite librettist and also a member of the Klopstock circle of humanists. The chalumeau (a clarinet prototype) lends an especially piquant timbre to the duets it accompanies.

Between the two very different vocal works, Hermann Max and the Kleine Konzert perform Telemann's instrumental Overture in F minor, actually a suite of nine instrumental dances in the French manner, scored for strings and continuo with two recorders, two oboes, and a very tasty bassoon part. This is one of the 122 extant overture-suites from Telemann's pen, but it is thought that he wrote as many as 1000 such entertainments. This is the sort of elegant Telemannische music that suits its ensemble so well that it almost plays itself. But don't be misled! The facility is skin deep; beneath it you'll hear absolute mastery of harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, and structure.

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