Between 1738 and 1762,
Telemann was often commissioned to compose
ceremonial music for newly built churches
in and around Hamburg. This is one such
piece, written for the 1747 consecration
of the Church of the Holy Trinity in
St. Georg, which although now is a part
of Hamburg proper, in Telemann’s day
lay outside the city gates. At the time,
the church was considered one of the
most beautiful baroque churches in all
of the city, but it was alas destroyed
in the Second World War. Scored for
large orchestra and chorus and soloists,
the libretto was written by Heinrich
Gottlob Schellhaffer (1707-57), who
was a professor at the Hamburg Gymnasium.
Given the church’s moniker, the
music is filled with Trinitarian symbolism
both in its texts and in its musical
structure.
Telemann was one of
history’s most prolific composers, his
works numbering in the thousands; much
of it still lies unrecorded and unexplored.
Given the generally high quality of
his output, we can be grateful for this
recording, especially given the large-scale
nature of the work. It is a welcome
addition to the known repertoire, and
one can hope that an occasional live
performance will come from this recording.
There is much to be
praised here in this the work’s world
premiere recording. The orchestra plays
with taut rhythmic elegance, and the
balance between chorus and orchestra
is good, with the texts on the whole
understandable and clear. Ulrich Stötzel
has a fine command of the style and
keeps the music moving at a goodly pace.
The soloists are on
the whole fine with one very notable
exception in the person of counter-tenor
Ralf Popken. When God, oh when, will
we get beyond this overwhelming need
to use male altos, like this poor fellow,
who to my taste produce unbearably ugly
and unrefined sounds. We do not have
any authentic castrati any more (Thanks
be to God) and falsettists on the whole
simply don’t cut it. This example is
one of the most egregious that I have
heard in years.
Tenor Andreas Post
and soprano Monika Mauch sing with particularly
sweet and mellifluous tones. Bass Albrecht
Pöhl is possessed of a fine instrument,
but it is heard best in the more lyrical
less active passages. When he sings
coloratura he tends to over sing, and
the tone goes from rich and clear to
muddled and bark-ish.
Otherwise, this is
a fine performance and there is much
lovely music to discover here. Since
this is the only recording of the work
available, there’s not much of a choice
but to buy it if you are interested
in the music. Hänssler’s production
values both in quality of recorded sound
and fine commentary in the program book,
are of the highest and most professional
order. This label, along with its sister
company Profil have given us
quite a number of outstanding performances,
and it is also nice to see someone other
than the ubiquitous (albeit brilliant)
Helmuth Rilling at the helm.
I hope that someone
along the lines of Philippe Herreweghe
or Ton Koopman get hold of this score
and give it a second reading for comparison.
We could be assured of higher quality
soloists at any rate.
Recommended with the
above mentioned caveat being a real
potential deterrent.
Kevin Sutton
Trompeten Consort Friedemann Immer 
