Ludger Rémy - Telemann: Der Tod Jesu, TWV 5:6 (2000)

"The Death of Jesus", a Passion Oratorio based on the text by Karl Wilhelm Ramler, belongs to the series of the wonderful works of the late Georg Philipp Telemann. It was unfortunately premiered in Hamburg in 1755 and, unfortunately, never attained the fame of the oratorio just a week later in Berlin to the same text by Carl Heinrich Graun. Telemann was in a paternal-friendly correspondence with the much younger Graun, and it is quite possible that composing the same accusation at the same time was a deliberate contest between the two musicians. The exchange of both works in Hamburg and Berlin would speak a year later. Anyway, the old master showed it to the younger here! His music is harsher, but also more characteristic than the "sensitive" and fashionable Grauns, full of surprising, even drastic harmony and - despite the most sparing instrumentation - full of unheard sound images. All this is in the best hands with Ludger Rémy and his Telemann chamber orchestra Michaelstein. Our star vocalists: Dorothee Mields, Britta Schwarz, Jan Kobow, Klaus Mertens and the Magdeburg Chamber Choir.