Hermann Max, Rheinische Kantorei, Veronika Winter, Anne Bierwirth - Telemann: Lukas Passion 1748 (2011)

Last year’s Magdeburg Festival Days were marked by an extraordinary event: the revival of Telemann’s last known extant passion composition, the St. Luke Passion of 1748, by the Rheinische Kantorei and the Kleines Konzert under Hermann Max. In the mid-nineteenth century the autograph made its way to Berlin, where it today is preserved as the only source for this composition. The historical edition was prepared especially for the modern repeat performance in Magdeburg. Every four years Telemann returned to the same passion narrative, always employing the language of music to occupy himself in new ways with the gospel message of each of the four evangelists. This means that each of his twenty-two extant Hamburg »church passions« (from a total of forty-six) has an entirely different character and traces with special clarity Telemann’s stylistic development from the baroque to early classicism. The St. Luke Passion of 1748 displays special magnificence: it is practically through-composed and has many stirring accompagnati instead of dry secco recitatives, dramatic arias, and turba choruses of particular succinctness and in great numbers. This is Telemann at his best!