Alex Potter - Telemann: Missa & Cantatas for Countertenor (2019)

Alex Potter – praised by the press as “a rising star in the world of countertenors” – interprets sacred works by Telemann for CPO on this CD. The setting of Psalm 6 continues to be thoroughly obliged to the tone of the sacred concertos of the seventeenth century associated with names such as Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Rosenmüller, and Johann Schelle. However, even though this psalm setting entitled “Ach, Herr strafe mich nicht” very much resembles similar works by older authors, it nevertheless displays a very special aura. Accompanied by two violins and basso continuo, an affectively nuanced narrative of a soul plagued by fear and hoping for the end of its torments is heard. The Missa in B minor is similar in style to the music of the psalm; it is what is known as a Lutheran “short mass”, which with its Kyrie and Gloria merely consists of two compositional complexes. All the numbers comprising “Me miserum” concern the faithful soul, which tells its story, is aware of its insufficiency but does not yield to despair, and therefore is able to register its experience of faith. A sonata and two fugues round off the CD.