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Reviewer: Bertil
van Boer Christoph Graupner should really have a place in music history as Mr. Baroque Cantata, for he wrote well over 1,000 of these beasts during a long and fruitful career at the court in Darmstadt. In 1723, lest one forget, he was one of the contenders for the position in Leipzig that went eventually to Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was always considered the “also ran,” for both Telemann (the first choice) and Graupner were far better known for the sort of works that the Lutheran town council required. Of course, the council really could not competitive—Telemann used it as leverage for increasing his own salary, while Duke Ernst Ludwig in Darmstadt was well aware of the prestige and fame having Graupner in his employ and so gave him an exclusive contract with a much increased salary. Moreover, Darmstadt had a more famed ensemble, and Graupner was given pretty much free reign to write as he pleased. The result was almost five decades of service and an exhaustive number of works that indicate every bit as innovative a style as that of his friend and colleague Telemann. By the time of his last work in 1754 he had morphed his style towards that of the galant, in practice becoming one of those special transitional figures. This disc is not the first to tackle that vast repertory that comprises the Graupner cantatas. It takes as its focus the cycle Das Leiden Jesu from 1741 and thus are relatively late cantatas. By this time, he had a long and illustrious career behind him, and so these allow his individuality to show through in terms both of instrumentation and style, even though they conform to the Lutheran cantata tradition. In the opening recitative of Erzittre, toll und freche Welt, the words “Erzittre, toll und freche Welt” are done to a prickly little staccato in the strings before the work devolves into a brief conventional recitative. Indeed, the first concerted piece is the Dictum almost three minutes in. The chorale is set contrapuntally to a rather chromatic line before it all comes together in a more modern homophonic style. The following duet for soprano and alto outlines the “flames of hell” with sudden bursts of eighth notes and a solo violin colophon. The mellow bassoon solo in the second aria, “Er weicht,” blends with the solo violin duo and the bass voice like the irregular heartbeat of the unrepentant sinner. In the second cantata, Christus, der uns selig macht, the harmonies of the opening chorale veer off from the expected progression, with a mournful line that contrasts the oboes and early clarinet predecessors, the chalumeaux. The oboe line of the bass aria “Schwert und Stangen” is quite virtuoso, lyrical and flowing, and when the voice enters the two engage in a nice melismatic competition. The final choral is a gentle pastoral movement, setting the stage for the more complex final cantata, Fürwahr er trug unsere Krankheit. This begins with a lengthy Dictum with bits of counterpoint woven into a darker woodwind texture of the chalumeaux and bassoons. There is a chorale at its foundation, but this is disguised by the various suspensions and meandering harmonies. A second Dictum follows after a brief recitative in which the woodwinds offer a sort of Harmonie with the more emphatic homophonic chorus. The following soprano aria, “Menschenfreund,” is quite operatic and in the modern galant style. The chalumeaux provide a nice foil to the often fragmentary line, particularly in the second section. In the second aria, “Harte Herzen,” the bass sneaks in below the active bassoon line, almost as an afterthought to the aria itself. The woodwind writing is particularly effective in the final chorale, where the vocal lines are static, while the chalumeaux and bassoons twirl around them. These are wonderfully written works that show Graupner at the peak of his career; far from being over the hill, he was able to use his own orchestrational ability and freedom of formal structure to create three well-integrated works that flow easily into each other. The performance by the Mannheimer Hofkapelle is excellent, with no lapses in intonation or articulation. The performers of the Ex Tempore vocal ensemble function well as soloists and a small chorus, sort of two on a part for the latter. The vocal blend is equally fine. In short, this is an excellent disc that demonstrates both the originality of Graupner’s late works for the Easter season, as well as the fine performance by the ensemble, which seems perfect for this music. | |
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