Christoph GRAUPNER (1683-1760)
The Passion Cantatas
Wir wissen, dass Trübsal Geduld bringet (1744) [16:46]
Wo gehet Jesus hin? (1739) [19:44]
Freund, warum bist Du kommen? (1741) [19:00]
Mein Gott! Mein Gott! Warum hast Du mich verlassen? (1731) [15:13]
Anton-Webern-Chor Freiburg
Ensemble Concerto Grosso/Hans Michael Beuerle
rec. March 2011, Martinskirche Müllheim (Baden)
Texts and translations included
CARUS 83.457 [70:46]
Christoph Graupner was an almost exact contemporary of Bach and Handel and
indeed it was because Graupner declined the position, that Bach was appointed
Kantor at St. Thomas’ in Leipzig. He declined because the Landgrave Ernst
Ludwig of Hesse had invited him back in 1709 to become Vice-Kapellmeister
of his Darmstadt orchestra. Within two years he was Court Kapelmeister. The
position entailed the composition of weekly cantatas, composing and directing
operas, and writing instrumental music. So when the Leipzig call came, Graupner
was reaping the financial rewards of long and esteemed service, and nothing
Leipzig offered could remotely match it.
In his life he wrote an astonishing 1400 church cantatas. The four Passion
Cantatas in this disc were written in the 1730s and 40s, and all the texts
were written by architect and poet Johann Conrad Lichtenberg. Compassion and
gratitude are the twin textual and emotive identities explored by the texts.
There are no ‘effects’ as regards imagery; the language is plain speaking,
direct, shorn of artifice or opportunities for quasi-operatic subterfuge.
The Ensemble Concerto Grosso is made up 2-1-1-1 with organ and harpsichord.
The Anton-Webern-Chor Freiburg has twelve members, three in each voice part,
and solos are taken by choir members themselves. Wir wissen, dass Trübsal
Geduld bringet is representative of Graupner’s aesthetic approach in
these Passions. It has an opening chorus, followed by a tenor recitative,
and a duet between tenor and bass, and then a soprano recitative and aria,
finishing with a brief chorus. The music is concise, compact, undemonstrative
but not at all cold. By far the longest movement is the six minute soprano
aria, which is radiant, warmly devotional and presents some divisions for
the soloist to negotiate.
Stylistically Carus’s notes position Graupner on the borderline of Baroque
and Galant, but these Passions certainly suggest the former very strongly.
He is good at conveying melancholy, fortunately, which he does in 1739’s Wo
gehet Jesus hin? where the chorus’s Ach, aurer Gang is pitiful
in its directness. Once again it’s the soprano aria that occupies the most
ground between expression and florid declamation – the echoing lines between
voice and accompanying ensemble are well characterised. Graupner entrusts
the soprano with a few tricky divisions in the next Passion, Freund, warum
bist Du kommen? and this draws out the affetusoso side of Graupner’s
expressive palette. With its arresting opening Mein Gott, and its
alto and tenor duet and concentrated richness, Mein Gott! Mein Gott! Warum
hast Du mich verlassen? is the passion that most nearly approximates
that of J.S. Bach. Its choral reprise offers a warm slant of Graupner’s imagination
and a testament both to his skill and to his awareness of the value and function
of cyclical or repeated material, the better to heighten the expressive effect
through clarity and simplicity of means.
These are all world premiere recordings and are performed with care and thoughtfulness.
Graupner’s music has been receiving more exposure of late, and I hope this
latest disc goes some way to explaining why that should be.
Jonathan Woolf
Concise, compact, undemonstrative but not at all cold … performed with care
and thoughtfulness.