Georg Philipp Telemann [Import]

Georg Philipp Telemann differed from his friend and colleague Johann Sebastian Bach in that he was even more prolific, producing so much music that it has never been completely catalogued even until today. This enormous mass of music includes a large number of oratorical passions composed during the time that Telemann was music director of the city of Hamburg in North Germany. The 1746 Matthew Passion recorded here is, in some ways, typical of such works written for use in Lutheran Churches at Eastertide: there is an evangelist who declaims verbatim the words of St. Matthew’s Gospel; the words of the other characters are sung by individual singers (Peter, Pilate, Judas Iscariot etc.); the recitative is divided into “secco” and “arioso”; and there are “arias” sung by various members of the cast or, as here in a number of instances, by allegorical figures such as “The Penitent Soul” or “Faith”, always with pious, devotional texts responding to what is happening in the Gospel. There are “turbae” scenes sung by the choir, and, of course, individual verses of hymns well-known to the congregation interspersed in the whole.

Where Telemann’s 1746 St. Matthew Passion differs from many contemporary works is its use of French-style changes of metre within the recitative, enabling Telemann to create a very smooth-flowing narrative and releasing him from the straightjacket of the normal regular declamation expected. The result is a pleasing, fast-flowing Passion that appears to look forward to the music of the next half-century rather than back to the monumental baroque works of Bach or Schütz.

This recording is of a live performance given by the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert at the cathedral in Knechtsteden on 24th September, 1998. As always with live performances, there are certain disadvantages: you hear the coughing of the audience, occasionally someone accidentally touches a microphone, and once or twice there are inaccuracies in the choir that would have been corrected in a studio recording. On the other hand, the live atmosphere is something that a studio recording cannot achieve, and anyway, one would normally be lucky to hear a performance as good as this anywhere. The part of the evangelist is sung excellently by tenor Wilfried Jochens, and he is joined by Klaus Mertens as a very sovereign Jesus. The other solo parts are taken, it seems, by members of the Rheinische Kantorei, all the male soloists being members of the choir on the evening, while the two female soloists, Veronika Winter, soprano, and Carmen Schüller, alto, did not have the extra burden of singing in the choir.

The result is a fast-moving, enjoyable Passion that, although it does not have the stature of Bach’s ”Matthäuspassion”, is a moving experience both musically and spiritually.

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