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Gyorgy Vashegyi, Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir - Johann Michael Haydn: Der Kampf der Busse und Bekehrung (2014)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Gyorgy Vashegyi, Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir - Johann Michael Haydn: Der Kampf der Busse und Bekehrung (2014)

György Vashegyi, Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir - Johann Michael Haydn: Der Kampf der Buße und Bekehrung (2014)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 378 Mb | Total time: 79:55 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Carus | # 83.351 | Recorded: 2009

The oratorio "Der Kampf der Buße und Bekehrung" (the struggle for penance and conversion) is among Johann Michael Haydn's lesser-known works. The Purcell Choir together with the Orfeo Orchestra, under the direction of György Vashegyi now present a recording of the second and only surviving part of this three-part oratorio. It is impressive, especially for its unusual scoring: All of the the five solo roles are allotted to sopranos. The artistic mixture of majestic passages, surprising turns, Baroque rhetorical figures and virtuoso arias makes clear why later composers (e.g., Mozart, Schubert or Bruckner) repeatedly took Johann Michael Haydn's music as their model.

Mária Zadori, Paul Esswood - George Frideric Handel: Duets & Cantatas (1984)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Mária Zadori, Paul Esswood - George Frideric Handel: Duets & Cantatas (1984)

Mária Zádori, Paul Esswood - George Frideric Handel: Duets & Cantatas (1984)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 439 Mb | Total time: 47:30+48:02 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hungaroton | # HCD 12565-2 | Recorded: 1984

These records offer seven of the duets Handel wrote about 1710 for Italian aristocratic parties (they are said to be influenced by Steffani), three much later duets of the 1740s presumably composed in England (why, one wonders?), and one cantata for each singer of which the date is not known. None of these items is available in the current catalogue, and most of them fell on my ears with delightful freshness. This really is lovely music. The duets are mostly in three short sections, the voices treated fugally in the quicker movements but with a lot of coloratura thrown in, and a quiet lyrical middle section in between.

Mária Zádori, Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: Latin Motets (1997)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Mária Zádori, Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: Latin Motets (1997)

Mária Zádori, Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: Latin Motets (1997)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 330 Mb | Total time: 68:49 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hungaroton | # HCD 31649 | Recorded: 1996

Motety religijne Händla, choć oparte zostały na bogobojnych tekstach łacińskich, mają w istocie charakter solowych kantat o skocznych tempach i pogodnym, wesołym, nastroju. Głos Marii Zadori - jasny, lekki, niewinny, dziecinny - idealnie pasuje do atmosfery tych utworów. Barwą i giętkością przypomina trochę Emmę Kirkby. Bez najmniejszych problem?w węgierska śpiewaczka radzi sobie z bogatą ornamentyką, z koloraturą i z fragmentami lirycznymi (początek motetu "Silete venti"). Nie szarżuje, nie przeciąga najwyższych dźwięków. Biegłość techniczna i nienaganna intonacja pozwalają jej skupić się na interpretacji, co najpiękniejszy efekt daje w motecie "Coelestis dum spirat aura".

Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert - Hasse: Messe in d & Heinichen: Requiem (1998)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert - Hasse: Messe in d & Heinichen: Requiem (1998)

Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert - Hasse: Messe in d & Heinichen: Requiem (1998)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 304 Mb | Total time: 67:10 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Capriccio | # 10 570 | Recorded: 1995

Hasse was 52 when he composed the Mass in D minor recorded here, but in every way – in form, affect, and aesthetics – Hasse belongs more to the generation of the much younger Haydn than to that of Bach. His Mass in D minor is thoroughly a work of the Enlightenment: symmetrical, lucidly rational, celebratory rather than penitent, 'public' rather than personal, a concert of elegant music rather than an outpouring of spiritual energy. It's not as great a work as Bach's – let us not be unclear about that – but it's a wonderful composition in its own way. If you have heard and appreciated the Haydn and Mozart masses, you'll find this mass quite as excellent as those. In fact, Hasse's mass sounds very much like Haydn at his best, in the masses that Haydn wrote 40-some years later for Esterhazy occasions.

Pál Németh, Savaria Baroque Orchestra - Antonio Caldara: La Passione di Gesù Cristo Signor Nostro & Sinfonias (1999)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pál Németh, Savaria Baroque Orchestra - Antonio Caldara: La Passione di Gesù Cristo Signor Nostro & Sinfonias (1999)

Pál Németh, Savaria Baroque Orchestra - Antonio Caldara: La Passione di Gesù Cristo Signor Nostro & Sinfonias (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 577 Mb | Total time: 58:30+65:36 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hungaroton | # HCD 31862-63 | Recorded: 1998

This the work was first given in Vienna during Holy Week, 1729, the first of many collaborations between Caldara and Metastasio. Mention of the great librettist provides a prompt that my original review failed to stress the outstanding qualities of the text. Divided into two halves, the first part of the oratorio relates the story of the crucifixion as witnessed through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, John, and Joseph of Arimathea, who respond to the eager questioning of the remorseful Peter. The second part consists of philosophical commentary on the meaning of the crucifixion. Particularly in Part I, Metastasio draws on vivid imagery to convey the full horror of the event. Here, for example, is John describing the nailing to the cross: "… and some hardened, loutish men, sweating as they worked, bathed his face with their foul perspiration."

Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: St John Passion / Johannes-Passion (1995)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: St John Passion / Johannes-Passion (1995)

Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: St John Passion / Johannes-Passion (1995)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 254 Mb | Total time: 60:04 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hungaroton | # HCD 12908 | Recorded: 1995

The St. John Passion was long regarded as an early work by Handel, written in Hamburg in 1704. It had to be early, as there are few really Handelian fingerprints in the music. In the late 1960s though, musicologists started allocating it to Georg Böhm (1661-1733), a Thuringian-born composer who worked in Hamburg and Luneburg. He is remembered chiefly for his fine organ music and his influence on Bach. But the record booklet makes an interesting case for Handel's authorship, particularly as Handel's friend Mattheson was an advocate of the work.

Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert, Rheinische Kantorei - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach: Miserere mei (2017)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert, Rheinische Kantorei - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach: Miserere mei (2017)

Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert, Rheinische Kantorei - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach: Miserere mei; Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (2017)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 324 Mb | Total time: 57:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: MDG | MDG 602 1994-2 | Recorded: 1988, 1994

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was a child of his times, which were characterised by new beginnings and profound changes in the political and cultural arena as well as in the societal and philosophical spheres. The “Miserere” and the motet “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” on this recording beautifully document these transformations. MDG is now presenting an archive production that has achieved historic status. Hermann Max, a pioneer in the field of historically informed performance practice, performs with the Rheinische Kantorei and his “Das Kleine Konzert” ensemble in a production for the Western German Radio (WDR).

Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert - Telemann: Passions-Oratorium TWV5.5; Kantaten TWV4.18 & TWV2.2 (1997)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert - Telemann: Passions-Oratorium TWV5.5; Kantaten TWV4.18 & TWV2.2 (1997)

Hermann Max, Das Kleine Konzert - Telemann: Passions-Oratorium TWV5.5; Kantaten TWV4.18 & TWV2.2 (1997)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 287 Mb | Total time: 58:08 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 999 500-2 | Recorded: 1990, 1993

Hermann Max keeps on impressing me with his interpretations (I've heard his Bach Matthew passion and liked it very much). In this case he brings together a reverent but emotionally filled production of just a few of the many, many, many Telemann choral pieces that have been neglected over the years. Special praise goes to the counter-tenor Cordier, the tenor Wilfried Jochens, and the two basses Wimmer and Shreckenberg.

Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - Carl Heinrich Graun: Der Tod Jesu (1992)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pál Németh, Capella Savaria - Carl Heinrich Graun: Der Tod Jesu (1992)

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

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.

Hermann Max, Rheinische Kantorei, Das Kleine Konzert - Johann Friedrich Fasch: Cantatas; Carl Fasch: Psalm 119 (2002)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hermann Max, Rheinische Kantorei,  Das Kleine Konzert - Johann Friedrich Fasch: Cantatas; Carl Fasch: Psalm 119 (2002)

Hermann Max, Rheinische Kantorei, Das Kleine Konzert - Johann Friedrich Fasch: Cantatas; Carl Fasch: Psalm 119 (2002)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 399 Mb | Total time: 79:09 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 999 594-2 | Recorded: 1995, 1996, 2001

Wie weit komponierende Söhne und Väter stilistisch auseinander liegen können, wird oft an dem Vergleich Johann Sebastians und Johann Christian Bachs demonstriert. Nun, es gibt einen ähnlich gelagerten Fall: Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758) und sein Sohn Carl (1736–1800).

Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria, Stadtsingechor Halle - Handel: Brockes Passion (1986)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria, Stadtsingechor Halle - Handel: Brockes Passion (1986)

Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria, Stadtsingechor Halle - Handel: Brockes Passion (1986)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 720 Mb | Total time: 52:34+51:50+45:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hungaroton | # HCD 12734-36-2 | Recorded: 1985

Handel's 'Brockes Passion' has had rather a bad press, suffering rather in comparison with Bach's passions. In fact, Handel's 'Brockes Passion' was written written at about the same time as 'Esther', some eight years before Bach wrote the St. John Passion. One of the subsidiary impulses which led to the creation of 'Esther' may have been a desire, on Handel's part, to hear some of the music from the passion performed as 'Esther' re-uses some nine numbers and others were re-used in 'Deborah'.

Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: Floridante (1991)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: Floridante (1991)

Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria - George Frideric Handel: Floridante (1991)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 774 Mb | Total time: 55:04+47:31+57:10 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hungaroton | # HCD31304-06 | Recorded: 1990

Composing Floridante was not a happy experience for Handel. He had recently acquired a popular rival, Giovanni Bononcini, and was forced to work with a new librettist that was more interested in the poetry of his material than its stageworthiness. However, the most serious problem occurred halfway through writing the opera, in October 1721, when the soprano whom Handel had cast as Elmira fell ill. The directors of the opera house (the Royal Academy of Music, patronized by King George I) decided to replace her with a contralto, Anastasia Robinson, whose voice was more limited in range and agility, but who possessed strong political credentials: she was both Roman Catholic, and the mistress of the Earl of Peterborough. These were important assets to the aristocratic Roman Catholic faction that held sway in the Academy at that time. In turn, her former scheduled part, that of Rossane, was to be given to a soprano, Maddalena Salvai.