TELEMANN: Brockes-Passion – Soloists/ RIAS Chamber Choir/ Academy for Ancient Music Berlin/ Rene Jacobs – Harmonia mundi HMC 902013.14 (2 CDs) 139:51 *****:
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was an extremely prolific Baroque composer who may have composed as many as 3,000 works, most of them now lost. It is believed that many of his unpublished manuscripts were destroyed during World War Two. Perhaps 800 works have managed to survive. Telemann composed in all of the major Baroque genres and was more famous than J. S. Bach during his lifetime. His star was eventually eclipsed, however, and his works remained essentially unknown until the Baroque revival of the mid-20th Century.
Barthold Brockes was a major German writer of the early 18th Century. His narrative of Christ’s Passion became very popular and was set to music by many composers. Telemann’s version of the work premiered in April 1716 and eventually achieved such fame that even Bach used it as a model for some of his vocal works. Brockes-Passion inevitably invites comparison to the two surviving Passions by Bach. It is much lighter in texture and mood than either one with a lyrical beauty that seems – to my ears at least – to be heavily influenced by the French style. The work is tuneful and immediately attractive with superb writing for both voices and instruments.
Rene Jacobs conducts the period instruments orchestra the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin with his typical finesse and attention to detail. Jacobs has established a reputation for excellence: his recordings of the major Mozart operas are some of the finest ever made. He is especially skillful with works that require delicacy of touch in order to maintain the proper balance between voices and instruments. One of the pleasing aspects of this recording is the surface perfection that Jacobs so skillfully projects. The voices are beautifully recorded, seeming to float above the period instruments with an utterly appropriate celestial lightness. The Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin plays with skill and sensitivity, discovering in Telemann’s music a poignant depth of emotion while never betraying its lyrical charm. It is a delicate balance to be sure but one that is managed with consummate skill by all concerned. This is an exemplary recording of a work that deserves to be much better known.
Harmonia mundi’s engineers have done a superb job in capturing the performance in clean, clear and crisp sound. The recording allows voices and instruments to blend harmoniously without losing either their definition or their individuality.
— Mike Birman
