Ludger Rémy, Telemann Kammerorchester Michaelstein - Georg Philipp Telemann: Der Tod Jesu (2000)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 336 Mb | Total time: 76:12 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 999 720-2 | Recorded: 1999
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 336 Mb | Total time: 76:12 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 999 720-2 | Recorded: 1999
There's nothing meek or morbid about Telemann's 'Jesu' in this passion oratorio. This is a confident muscular Jesu, closer to the Saxon Heliand than to the Man of Sorrows depicted on the CD cover; the first aria proclaims Him a hero: "Du Held… du kannst und willst mein Schutzgott sein." (You Hero… you can and will be my Protector-God.) Before that, the Siegfriedesque cantabile for horn that opens the composition sounds not so much like a lament as a call to don one's spiritual armor, and throughout the whole text Jesu is portrayed as indomitable amid the torment and agony of his followers. Specifically, He is the Lion of Judah, the model of Christian fortitude against all enemies.