Search - Carl Heinrich Graun, Fritz Naf, L'Arpa Festante :: Carl Heinrich Graun: Te Deum [Hybrid SACD]

Poised between the Baroque and Empfindsamkeit

James Rockhill | Michigan, USA | 06/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a lovely disc. The Te Deum is reminiscent of Zelenka's music for Dresden and C. P. E. Bach's choral works in its alternation of plangently melodious arias and fugal choruses, which match memorable melody with contrapuntal rigor - the lively concluding double fugue is as arresting and indelible as anything in Handel.



The a' capella motets are equally fine, though more consciously Baroque than galant in affect. Again, the melodies are memorable, whether treated in harmonic blocks, antiphonal exchange, or fugal elaboration, and Graun's contrapuntal writing has an expert yet pleasurable flow to it, which is never dry. These motets are closer to the level of those written by the members of Bach's family and his friend Telemann than the grand testaments penned by Johann Sebastian himself, but are no less attractive or devoid of individual touches for all that."

Handel in the Original German?

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 11/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Once upon a time I selected a program of 16th Century Franco-Flemish motets for Advent and Christmas, to be performed by an ensemble of eight singers and instrumentalists in various cities in North America. Feeling puckish that year, I promoted it as "A Concert in Honor of Handel's Messiah, in the Original Flemish." My little joke backfired when dozens of people at the ticket window demanded their money back; they'd come expecting to hear how the Hallelujah Chorus would sound in Dutch.



Carl Heinrich Graun (1703-1759), I predict, will sound to most listeners a good deal like "Handel in German." A knowledgeable purist will no doubt object to the comparison, pointing out the Italianate qualities of Handel's style and insisting that Graun owes far more to Telemann and cleaves more closely to the North German traditions that nourished the Bach family. But it seems to me that a review of a composer as little known as Graun needs to give the reader some practical sense of what the music sounds like. If you are familiar with Handel's oratorio Saul, and enjoy it, you'll be pleased with this performance of festive music and devotional motets for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. The language here, by the way, in case you are puzzled, is Latin not German, but the musical vocabulary is echt Deutsch.



Graun's and Handel's careers were somewhat parallel, though Graun never left his German homeland. He was the court composer of Frederick II of Prussia, and a favorite of the Princess Anna Amalie, who coaxed him to write his most famous oratorio Der Tod Jesu. Graun and Handel both wrote Te Deum settings. Both composers put their most strenuous efforts into compositions of operas in Italian; both produced splendid and succesful operas about Julius Caesar. Both showed a fondness for brassy grandeur, and both were masters of the choral fugue. After listening to this exuberant performance led by Fritz Näf, I'm inclined to think that only familiarity separates Handel from Graun in terms of musical excellence.



The four soloists - Monika Mauch, Elizabeth von Magnus, Bernhard Gärtner, and the omnipresent bass Klaus Mertens - are superb throughout. Mauch has become a favorite of mine, and her name among the performers on any CD constitutes a promise of musical interest. The notes with this Graun CD reveal that she studied in Paris with soprano Jill Feldman, an amusing surprise to me since I also studied with Jill Feldman years earlier, with vastly less impressive results.



The Basel Madrigalists - the chorus on the CD - grew from a student ensemble at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the redoubtable "early music" conservatory that has produced three generations of the most skillful 'historically informed' singers and instrumentalists in Europe. The instrumental ensemble L'Arpa Festante, here expanded to a full orchestra, is one of the most respected period instrument emsembles in Germany; they certainly earn their reputation with this sterling performance."