Georg Philipp Telemann wrote a series of Passions between 1716 and 1767. All of these works were written to be performed in German churches in the days leading up to Easter. He wrote over 40 passions for the churches of Hamburg, 22 of which have survived. One of the most popular is his 1746 St. Matthew’s Passion. Here, the work is performed by Hermann Max and the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert. This release is part of the Capriccio Encore series, which is a series of re-releases of the most famous recordings from Capriccio’s back catalogue, fully re-mastered and competitively priced. The legendary recordings of artists such as Sandor Végh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys’ Choir also contain repertoire highlights that have a particularly special appeal, from the baroque to the present day.

After Telemann had composed the “French Cycle,” he wrote his annual cycle for 1716/17 in the Italian style, the other style then current in the music world. This style is characterized by the “konzertierendes Prinzip,” that is, by the seemingly playful and relaxed but nonetheless finely organized treatment of motifs and themes manifesting itself in the instrumental concerto but also in the great opera aria. Telemann’s cycle in which he employed the stylistic elements developed in Italy was therefore termed the “Concerten-Jahrgang” and sometimes even the “Italian Cycle.” In 1716/17 Telemann composed and performed the church compositions from Advent to the Third Day of Pentecost. The second half of the annual cycle extending from Trinity Sunday to the end of the church year followed in 1719/20. The present release brings together four compositions, two from the first half of the annual cycle and two from the subsequently composed second half. The “konzertierendes Prinzip” is developed in different ways in each piece. This performance with the Mannheimer Hofkapelle and Ex Tempore under Florian Heyerick was one of the highlights of the Telemann Festival Days in 2016.

The discovery of Telemann’s previously unknown Altona Jubel-Music von 1760 in an omnibus manuscript belonging to the Hamburg State and University Library but first returned in 1998 from Armenia, where it had been deposited for wartime safekeeping, is remarkable in several respects. »Already immediately after the first performance of the work in Altona’s principal church on 16 October 1760, an unknown reporter writing in the Altonaer Mercurius judged that it was ‘a superbly beautiful composition.’ And it is in fact a qualitatively outstanding composition ranking with the best that Telemann composed during his last years. One more top-quality work increases our knowledge of Telemann’s late oeuvre. Until a few years ago it was also not known to what an astonishing degree Telemann had been active as a composer in Altona (at least twelve festive compositions written from 1741 to 1764), which then belonged to Denmark, or that at the time there was even a noteworthy musical scene in Altona. The two-part composition consisting of sixteen numbers to the text of an unknown poet honors King Frederick V of Denmark on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the hereditary sovereignty of the Danish royal house« (Jurgen Neubacher, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg).

The Magdeburg Sunday Concerts held ever since 1961 focus on chamber music. Not infrequently, as the present release likewise demonstrates, compositions by Telemann are featured and include works again made available for the everyday concert world in Magdeburg following intensive research investigations and the publication of modern score editions. From the 531st Sunday music concert, the GSOConsort led by the soprano and artistic director Gudrun Sidonie Otto now presents Advent cantata arias with a single vocal part and the continuo in a duet. These arias belong to a single annual cantata cycle published by Telemann from the end of 1726 to the end of 1727. They have been excerpted from church compositions designed with this option in mind, that is, the independent performance of the arias. Telemann revised the arias for publication; in particular, he worked on the precision of the ritornellos, shortening, redesigning, or rewriting them, or eliminated them entirely. Just how carefully the arias have been elaborated is shown both on the formal level and in what in part are complicated and unusual melodic, declamatory-rhythmical, and harmonic processes in an impressive spectrum of musical keys (Hirschmann, 2012). Telemann of course pays close attention to the verbal pictures, often also opposing ones, given in the texts – and does so in a most highly nuanced manner.

The Hamburger Ratsmusik – an ensemble looking back on a five-hundred-year history – teams up with the young countertenor Benno Schachtner on this recording of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Six Moral Cantatas. During the decades between 1720 and 1750 the middle class of the early Enlightenment sought moral education and ethical improvement deriving from human nature and reason as part of its never-ending quest for earthly happiness. It was with wit and charm that in his Moral Cantatas of 1735 Telemann set to music a poetic document conveying the spirit of this Enlightenment period. His only recently rediscovered Fantasies for Solo Viola da Gamba, published at the same time, are presented here in alternation with his Moral Cantatas, the title with which they were announced in a catalogue dating from August 1735. These two collections first performed together during a concert of the Hamburger Ratsmusik at the last Telemann Festival are now being presented here for the first time. These two works by Telemann were intended for professional and amateur musicians alike, and they seem to have met with special resonance among those interested parties who wanted to perform at home in smaller ensembles.