Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - Carl Heinrich Graun: Der Tod Jesu (1992)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 312 Mb | Total time: 78:32 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | QUI 903061 | Recorded: 1991
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 312 Mb | Total time: 78:32 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | QUI 903061 | Recorded: 1991
Der Tod Jesu of Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–59), completed in 1755, was for decades the musical mainstay of Passiontide services (a position now held by Bach’s and St. John Passions), being performed by the Berlin Singakademie virtually every Good Friday until 1884. Unlike the passions of Bach, Schütz, and other predecessors, Graun’s work does not set any texts of Scripture. Instead, in line with burgeoning Enlightenment sensibilities, the entire libretto by Carl Wilhelm Ramler (1725–98) is written in the exalted style of impassioned poetic declamation common to opera libretti of the era, in supposed imitation of Greek tragedy. At less than half the length of the Bach passions, and musically far less complex, with dignified and attractive arias composed in a style somewhat akin to those of Handel’s Messiah , it remains winsome even today, and its enduring popularity is readily comprehended.