Christoph Graupner was an almost exact contemporary of Bach
and Handel and indeed it was because Graupner declined the position,
that Bach was appointed Kantor at St. Thomas’ in Leipzig. He
declined because the Landgrave Ernst Ludwig of Hesse had invited
him back in 1709 to become Vice-Kapellmeister of his Darmstadt
orchestra. Within two years he was Court Kapelmeister. The position
entailed the composition of weekly cantatas, composing and directing
operas, and writing instrumental music. So when the Leipzig
call came, Graupner was reaping the financial rewards of long
and esteemed service, and nothing Leipzig offered could remotely
match it.
In his life he wrote an astonishing 1400 church cantatas. The
four Passion Cantatas in this disc were written in the 1730s
and 40s, and all the texts were written by architect and poet
Johann Conrad Lichtenberg. Compassion and gratitude are the
twin textual and emotive identities explored by the texts. There
are no ‘effects’ as regards imagery; the language is plain speaking,
direct, shorn of artifice or opportunities for quasi-operatic
subterfuge.
The Ensemble Concerto Grosso is made up 2-1-1-1 with organ and
harpsichord. The Anton-Webern-Chor Freiburg has twelve members,
three in each voice part, and solos are taken by choir members
themselves. Wir wissen, dass Trübsal Geduld bringet
is representative of Graupner’s aesthetic approach in these
Passions. It has an opening chorus, followed by a tenor recitative,
and a duet between tenor and bass, and then a soprano recitative
and aria, finishing with a brief chorus. The music is concise,
compact, undemonstrative but not at all cold. By far the longest
movement is the six minute soprano aria, which is radiant, warmly
devotional and presents some divisions for the soloist to negotiate.
Stylistically Carus’s notes position Graupner on the borderline
of Baroque and Galant, but these Passions certainly suggest
the former very strongly. He is good at conveying melancholy,
fortunately, which he does in 1739’s Wo gehet Jesus hin?
where the chorus’s Ach, aurer Gang is pitiful in its
directness. Once again it’s the soprano aria that occupies the
most ground between expression and florid declamation – the
echoing lines between voice and accompanying ensemble are well
characterised. Graupner entrusts the soprano with a few tricky
divisions in the next Passion, Freund, warum bist Du kommen?
and this draws out the affetusoso side of Graupner’s
expressive palette. With its arresting opening Mein Gott,
and its alto and tenor duet and concentrated richness, Mein
Gott! Mein Gott! Warum hast Du mich verlassen? is the passion
that most nearly approximates that of J.S. Bach. Its choral
reprise offers a warm slant of Graupner’s imagination and a
testament both to his skill and to his awareness of the value
and function of cyclical or repeated material, the better to
heighten the expressive effect through clarity and simplicity
of means.
These are all world premiere recordings and are performed with
care and thoughtfulness. Graupner’s music has been receiving
more exposure of late, and I hope this latest disc goes some
way to explaining why that should be.
Jonathan Woolf
Anton-Webern-Chor Freiburg