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SACRED MUSIC / EASTER 2012

JOHANN ERNST BACH (1722-1777)

Passionsoratorium / Passion Oratorio (1764)
Rheinische Kantorei · Das Kleine Konzert · Hermann Max

2CD-Set: C5122 PC: 21 UPC: 845221051222

                       
Passionsoratorium (1764)
für Sopran, Alt, Tenor, Bass, Chor, 2 Flöten, 2 Oboen, 2 Fagotte,
2 Hörner, Streicher und Basso continuo
Passion Oratorio (1764)
for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, chorus, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons,
2 horns, strings and continuo
 
Das Vertrauen der Christen auf Gott
Eine Ode auf den 77. Psalm für Tenor, Chor und Orchester
An Ode on the 77th Psalm for tenor, chorus and orchestra
 
Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn
Motette für Soli, vierstimmigen Chor, Streicher und Basso continuo
Motet for solo voices, four-part chorus, strings and continuo
 
BARBARA SCHLICK, MARTINA LINS, Sopran / soprano · SILKE WEISHEIT, Alt / contralto · DAVID CORDIER, Countertenor · CHRISTOPH PRÉGARDIEN, MARTIN SCHMITZ, Tenor
STEPHEN VARCOE, HANS-GEORG WIMMER, Bass
RHEINISCHE KANTOREI · DAS KLEINE KONZERT
HERMANN MAX, Dirigent / conductor

One of the peculiarities of today's concert world is that from the rich tradition provided by the former genre of the Passion of Christ set to music, only two works have been able to establish temselves permanently – the two monumental Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Passion Oratorio by Johann Ernst Bach, the nephew, godson and pupil of Johann Sebastian, is one of the lesser-known works. To this day, J.E. Bach's own vocal works have not been documented, indeed, they have not even been completely catalogued. It is possible with some difficulty to trace about 20 compositions. In order to be able to correctly assess his musical achievement, reference must also be made to the other music of Johann Ernst Bach's day and age. Despite his isolation in Eisenach in Thuringia, he was in no way cut off from the contemporary musical developments taking place in the large musical centres of Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg. With his explicit commitment to sacred music, Johann Ernst Bach occupies an extremely isolated position among the Protestant German composers of the second half of the 18th century. For Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, for example, the production of sunday cantatas was
one of the more tiresome duties associated with their professional existence. On this point, Johann Ernst Bach took a very different view. Although the religious works of both Telemann and J. S. Bach were, in his opinion, "admirable masterpieces", he strongly criticised the decay of sacred music during his own generation and demanded that this be counteracted by "artistic and regular styles of composition".
 

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STABAT MATER SALVE REGINA · ORFEO

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Klepper · Borst · Bamberger Streichquartett

C5130 PC: 01 UPC: 845221051307

Stabat Mater
für Sopran, Mezzosopran, Streicher und Orgel (1736)
for soprano, mezzo-soprano, strings and organ
Salve Regina
für Mezzosopran, Streicher und Basso continuo (1736)
for mezzo-soprano, strings and continuo
Orfeo
Kantate für Sopran, Streicher und Basso continuo
Cantata for soprano, strings and continuo
 
REGINA KLEPPER, Sopran / soprano
MARTINA BORST, Mezzosopran / mezzo-soprano
BAMBERGER STREICHQUARTETT
STEFAN ADELMANN, Kontrabass / double-bass
BERTHOLD HÖPS,  Cembalo & Orgel / harpsichord and organ

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI is one of those extraordinary musical figures who must be credited both with being outstanding creative geniuses and dying an untimely death. In his life-story, as in his epoch-making work, he has much in common with Mozart and Richard Wagner even spoke of him as a "génie supérieur". What is more, only five years in all were granted him for creative composition before he succumbed at an early age to an insidious tuberculosis. Scarcely anyone, perhaps, has described Pergolesi’s vocal works more splendidly and with more understanding than the philosopher and pedagogue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, author of the Dictionnaire de musique that was extremely widespread in the 19th century, when he wrote: "Here everything contributes to deepening the effect of the text: the harmony serves only to shape it more forcefully, the accompaniment embellishes it without distorting it. in a word, the whole work of art simultaneously communicates one melody to the ear and only one idea to the mind.“ This CD offers 3 Masterpieces recorded by the long time Duo REGINA KLEPPER and MARTINA BORST, accompanied by the BAMBERG STRING QUARTET.
 

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ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI: LA COLPA, IL PENTIMENTO, LA GRAZIA

Oratorium / Oratorio (1708)
La Stagione · Michael Schneider

2CD-Set: C5126 PC: 21 UPC: 845221051260

SCHULD, REUE UND GNADE · SIN, REPENTANCE AND GRACE
Oratorio per la Passione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo
Text von / Libretto by: Kardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740)

In 1708 the celebration of Easter and the Passion in Rome was dominated by two
outstanding musical events: Here, within an interval of four days (from the Wednesday to the Easter Sunday) were performed two oratorios in which a remarkable amount of the most elaborate effort had been invested and which reflected sequentially the Passion and the Resurrection: the Passion oratorio composed by the Italian "doyen" Alessandro Scarlatti was followed by the "Resurrezione" by G.F. Handel, the young, talented 23-year-old Saxonian genius. Whereas the "Resurrezione" has found some new acclaim following the Handel renaissance, Scarlatti's oratorios, like all his vocal works (apart from a few uncharacteristic exeptions), has fallen into oblivion. This full-length work is among Scarlatti's most mature compositions and is certainly the most representative example of the type of passion music cultivated in Italy.
This genre is based on a totally different conception to that of Bach's passion music. His stylistical language was typical and had a determining influence on the period between the early baroque style of Monteverdi, Cesti and Cavalli and the development of the "galant" style of his pupil J.A. Hasse which leads directly into the classical period.

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JOHANN ADOLF HASSE

MESSE IN D · MISERERE
Rheinische Kantorei · Das Kleine Konzert · Hermann Max

C5125 PC: 21 UPC: 845221051253

Hasse's lifespan covers a period "between the epochs": he was almost a generation younger then Bach and Handel, who were born in 1685, but on the other hand a generation older than Haydn (b. 1732) and even two generations older than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b.1756).
Hasse's music, however, from the outset was influenced by the new. Among his
contemporaries he was famous beyond all others. Hasse was not just any musician: he was one of the formative composers of his time, especially in the decades between 1730 and 1760. Hasse's Mass in D minor is a „number Mass" typical of its time, in which the five sections of the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) are subdivided into fifteen smaller passages of text with their own musically independent movements. In style the Mass displays a trend similar to the Italian but also Hasse's personal style become clear: with virtuosity, elegant melodic lines coupled with the course of the voice parts, harmony „pre-classically" two-dimensional, at the same time as rich in chromaticism, chords of the seventh and bitter suspensions.

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Die Kindheit Jesu - The Infancy Of Jesu

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach
Rheinische Kantorei · Das Kleine Konzert · Hermann Max

1CD · C5104 PC: 21 UPC: 845221051048

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DER TAG DES GERICHTS DIE DONNERODE

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN

MONOYIOS · SCHLICK · KÖHLER · JOCHENS · SCHRECKENBERGER
RHEINISCHE KANTOREI · DAS KLEINE KONZERT
HERMANN MAX, conductor

2CD-Set · C5098 PC: 21 UPC: 845221050980

DER TAG DES GERICHTS · THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
Ein Singgedicht in vier Betrachtungen · A poem for singing in four reflections
DIE DONNERODE · THE THUNDER ODE
Kantate in 2 Teilen für 5 Solostimmen, Chor und Orchester
Cantata in 2 Parts for 5 solo voices, choir and orchestra

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first“. In addition Telemann lets the thunder, the wrath of God, rumble darkly and menacingly. The Lord, the Judge, approaches. The Day of Judgment begins. With these signals a gripping musical event starts that opens a rich, symbol-laden world of the most beautiful, inspiring, often individual artistic accomplishments of word and music to anyone who is prepared to come to terms with it. The group begun in 1755 of Telemann works of his old age includes, several sacred oratorios in an absolutely logical sequence – Der Tod Jesu, Die Auferstehung, Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, Der Tag des Gerichts - as well as the two-part Donner-Ode, a cantata on Psalm models on the occasion of the Lisbon earthquake. . In all these late works, always wrestling with a compositional design suitable to the subject and the text, Telemann in each case strikes a specific note inherent in the work; he employs his compositional means in a way that develops an unmistakably individual character for the work. In The Day of Judgment Telemann is also the master of colour, of superior use of instruments.
Thus it becomes clear that The Day of Judgment is not, for instance, only a monument in the history of the German oratorio, but introduces the theological discussions and eschatological thought of that time.

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FONTANA D'ISRAEL THE FOUNTAIN OF ISRAEL

JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN
RHEINISCHE KANTOREI HERMANN MAX

COMPLETE RECORDING

2CD-Set · C5069 PC: 21 UPC: 845221050690

By the time Johann Hermann Schein, cantor at St. Thomas, Leipzig, put his signature to the preface to his new collection of religious vocal compositions entitled FONTANA D’ISRAEL, (The Fountain of Israel, Selected Edifying Quotations from the Old and New Testaments) dedicated to the Council of Leipzig, he was already able to look back on a considerable and varied compositional œuvre. But it was the only one of Schein’s religious works to be reissued as long as twenty-two years after his death, and it is still regarded as an "exceptional" artistic achievement, placing Schein among the leading early-Baroque German composers, alongside Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz.

The Israelsbrünnlein contains twenty-six vocal compositions, which, as Schein writes, „can be comfortably played on their own with lively voice and instruments, and also on the organ/harpsichord“ and to which he had added a figured bass, admittedly dispensible in most cases.

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JOHANN LUDWIG BACH

RHEINISCHE KANTOREI · DAS KLEINE KONZERT HERMANN MAX

CD 1: Trauermusik · Funeral Music
CD 2: Motetten · Motets
CD 3: Missa sopra · Cantatas

3CD-Set · C5080 PC: 22 UPC: 845221050805

The Meiningen Hofkapellmeister Johann Ludwig Bach is one of the members of the widely ramified family of musicians who did not pay much attention to secular fame and contented themselves with leading a secluded and industrious life, so that they quickly tended to sink into obscurity. That was perhaps why, as early as 1754, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach pleaded that those relatives not be forgotten: "It would be impossible to understand why such good men are so little known beyond their fatherland unless one remembers that those honest Thuringians were so satisfied with their fatherland and their situation that they did not even want to venture far beyond the same to seek their fortune elsewhere. Very little of Johann Ludwig Bach’s presumably quite extensive musical oeuvre has survived – just under two dozen sacred cantatas, about a dozen motets, a mass, a large funeral composition, a secular homage and an instrumental work of doubtful authenticity. The cantatas in particular have drawn the attention of scholars, since no fewer than eighteen of them have come down to us via Johann Sebastian Bach, who performed them in 1726, his third year of office as Thomaskantor in Leipzig.

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GEISTLICHE MUSIK DER BACH FAMILIE

SACRED MUSIC OF THE BACH FAMILY

C7100 · 5CD-Set · PC: 04 UPC: 845221071008

In addition to Johann Sebastian Bach, regarded by many as the greatest composer of all times, other members of this widely ramified family took up the profession of the composer: first of all his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Christian and Wilhelm Friedemann. This set of 5CDs offers sacred music written by these and other members of one of the most productive families in music history.

KANTATEN · CANTATAS

WILHELM FRIEDEMANN BACH (1710 – 1784)

CD 1: Lasset uns ablegen die Werke der Finsternis / Let us cast off the works of darkness · Es ist eine Stimme eines Predigers in der Wüste / The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness
CD 2: Dies ist der Tag / This is the day · Erzittert und fallet / Tremble and fall

C5083 · 2CD-Set · PC: 21 (2CDs for the price of 1) UPC: 845221050836

Johann Sebastian Bach’s eldest son was organist and musical director in Halle from 1746-64. The music directorate in Halle was similar in many respects to J.S. Bach’s position in Leipzig. In signing the certificate of appointment in Halle, Friedemann Bach undertook to perform a cantata every three weeks and additionally on all festival Sundays. Apparently it was not expected that a composition from his own pen should be performed every time, for Bach’s predecessor Gottfried Kirchhoff had already availed himself mainly of the works of Telemann. Friedemann too seems to have made use of this practice, but evidently had the ambition to appear on festival Sunday with his own especially carefully prepared works. The technical difficulties that his cantatas demanded of singers and instrumentalists, at all events, lie far beyond the average.

MOTETTEN der BACH-FAMILIE · MOTETS of the BACH FAMILY

Johann Christoph Bach · Johann Michael Bach · Johann Bach · Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach

TÖLZER KNABENCHOR (Mark Nordstrand, organ · Niklas Trüstedt, violone)
GERHARD SCHMIDT-GADEN, Dirigent / conductor

1CD · C5060 PC: 21 UPC: 845221050607

Es ist bekannt, dass die Bachs eine recht umfangreiche Musikerfamilie waren, aus der nicht nur der Übervater Johann Sebastian hervorging und seine hochbegabten Söhne Carl Philipp Emanuel und Wilhelm Friedemann, sondern eine Reihe weiterer, heute – sehr zu Unrecht – vergessener Musiker. Auf dieser CD kann man hören, wie virtuos und ausdrucksstark schon vor Bach komponiert wurde. Die Bandbreite der Werke von Johann Sebastians Verwandten reicht vom schlichten Kirchenchoral bis zur kunstvollen Motette.

It is widely known that the Bachs were a quite large family of musicians, from which not only the patriarch Johann Sebastian and his highly gifted sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedmann did emerge, but also a number of other musicians –wrongly forgotten today. This CD makes it possible to discover how virtuous and expressive works were composed even before Bach. The spectrum of the oeuvre of Johann Sebastian’s relatives ranges from plain religious hymns to elaborate motets.

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828)

MESSEN • MASSES Nos. 1-6
DEUTSCHE MESSE · GERMAN MASS

CD 1 Mass No.1 in F major D 105 · Mass No.2 in G major D 167
CD 2 Mass No. 3 in B flat major D 324 · Mass No.4 in C major D 452 “Lichtentaler Generalbassmesse op.48”
CD 3 Mass No.5 in A flat major D 678· Offertorio in C major D 136
CD 4 Mass No.6 in E flat major D 950 ·Tantum ergo in E flat major D 962
CD 5 Deutsche Messe D 872 / German Mass D 872 · Magnificat in C major D 486 Offertorio in B flat major D 963 · Stabat Mater in G minor D 175

C7046 PC: 5CD · PC 04 UPC: 84522107046 9

CELINA LINDSLEY · WERNER HOLLWEG · MAGDALENA HAJOSSYOVA
RIAS-KAMMERCHOR -BULGARISCHER NATIONALCHOR
RADIO-SYMPHONIE-ORCHESTER BERLIN · SOFIA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
MARCUS CREED · GEORGI ROBEV

RUSSIAN EASTER VESPER MASS Op.37

SERGE RACHMANINOV
RUSSIAN EASTER VESPER MASS Op.37

LITURGY OF ST.JOHN CHRYSOSTOM Op.31
Special Price !

3CD plus DVD · C7010

PC: 04 UPC: 845221070100

MYSTERY of the EAST – FROM RUSSIAN MONASTERIES AND CHURCHES
Siberia – Resurrection in the sleeping country (Documentary)
MYSTIK des OSTENS – AUS RUSSISCHEN KLÖSTERN UND KIRCHENSibirien – Auferstehung im Schlafenden Land (Dokumentation)
MYSTIQUE DE L’EST – DES COUVENTS ET EGLISES DE RUSSIE
Sibirie – Résurrection au pays endormi (Documentation)

Languages: Deutsch / English / Français / Español · Picture Format: NTSC / Colour / 4:3
Region Code: 0 (worldwide) · Sound Format: Dolby Digital 5.1 · Running Time: 75 min.

BONCHO CHAKOV (Priest), tenor · NICOLAI DZICHKOVSKII (Priest) baritone
STEFAN MARKOV (Protodeacon) bass
BULGARIAN NATIONAL CHOIR · GEORGI ROBEV, conductor

SERGE RACHMANINOV

In seinem letzten Lebensjahr, 1943, wurde Serge Rachmaninov amerikanischer Staatsbürger. Doch nach eigener Aussage war er immer ein russischer Komponist. Zeitgenossen wussten zu berichten, dass Rachmaninov die politisch erzwungene Flucht aus Russland 1917 nach der Oktober-Revolution nie verwunden hat. In den 25 Jahren von Rachmaninovs Aufenthalt in den USA und der Schweiz, wo er von 1933 bis 1939 die Sommermonate verbrachte, entstanden ganze sechs Kompositionen. Obwohl Rachmaninov persönlich nicht am religiösen Leben teilnahm, komponierte er 1910 und 1915 zwei groß angelegte liturgische Werke für Chor a cappella, die Liturgie des Heiligen Johannes Chrysostomus und das große Abend- und Morgenlob, auch als „Vesper“ bekannt geworden. Die Vesper war Rachmaninovs letztes in Russland komponiertes Werk, und es fiel bei den neuen kommunistischen Machthabern in Ungnade. Selbst die 1965 in Moskau produzierte erste Schallplatten-Aufnahme wurde nur im Ausland vertrieben, die eigene Bevölkerung durfte dieses Meisterwerk religiöser Musik nicht hören…

In his last year of life, in 1943, Serge Rachmaninov became an American citizen. Nevertheless he always regarded himself to be wholly Russian composer. He never really overcame the fact that he had to flee from Russia in 1917 after the October Revolution. During the 25 years, which he spent in the United States and in Switzerland (where he stayed during the summer months between 1933 and 1939), he only wrote six compositions. Thus not participating in religious life, he wrote two great liturgical works in 1910 and 1915 for a-capella choir. These were the “Liturgy of the
Holy John Chrysostomos“ and the Morning and Evening Rejoycing, also known as the Vesper. The Vesper was Rachmaninov’s last work to be composed in Russia, but it eventually fell in disgrace with the new Comunist leaders. Even the first disk recording in Moscow in the year 1965 was only produced for foreign markets; the own polulation was not allowed to listen to this kind of religious music.

Pendant sa dernière année de vie, en 1943, Serge Rachmaninov devint citoyen américain. Pourtant, d’après sa propre déclaration, il restait toujours un compositeur russe. Des contemporains racontent que Rachmaninov n’avait jamais pu surmonter sa fuite politiquement forcée de la Russie, après la révolution d’Octobre 1917. Pendant les 25 ans de son séjour aux Etats-Unis et en Suisse, où il passait les mois d‘été de 1933 à 1939, il composa six œuvres. Bien que Rachmaninov ne participa pas à la vie religieuse, il créa, en 1910 et 1915, deux grandes œuvres liturgiques pour chœur a cappella, la liturgie du saint Jean Chrysostome et le grand éloge du soir et du matin, également connu sous le titre de “Vêpres”. Cette composition fut la dernière des œuvres que Rachmaninov écrivit en Russie et elle tomba en disgrâce auprès des nouveaux dirigeants communistes. Même le premier enregistrement sur disque qui fut produit à Moscou, en 1965, n‘était distribué qu‘à l‘étranger, les compatriotes de Rachmaninov n’avaient pas le droit d’entendre ce chef d‘œuvre de la musique religieuse…

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