Telemann, G P - Bass Cantatas - Hilz, Christian / Ensemble Cordia

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World premiere recording of the three cantatas.

In a letter of 1718, looking back on 20 years of composing, Telemann wrote that church music was the genre he valued the most, and that the majority of work he had produced came under this genre. Indeed, this statement held true for the rest of his career -- this extremely prolific composer wrote more than 1000 cantatas and several Passions, psalm settings and minor sacred works. However, Telemann's style was in no way monotonous and unvaried -- his work encompasses a wide variety of musical genres, forms of expression and programmatic elements, and the three cantatas on this CD reflect this diversity. The first cantata heard here, Die Gnadentüre steht dir offen, was composed for just one vocalist, two violins, figured bass and a four-part choir, but these small musical forces barely affect the quality of the work. It is still a fine example of Telemann's versatility, in which he combines his own personal style with the influence of the delicate and refined music of Berlin in the 1740s. The next cantata on this CD, Herr, erhöre meine Stimme, consists of two arias which enclose a 100-bar arioso and recitative setting of the Lord's Prayer. Here, Telemann demonstrates his skill as a composer of programmatic music, using the high strings to depict the birds in the sky and the low strings to imitate the sounds of the animals on the ground. This skill is also evident in the final cantata on this disc, Ach Herr, lehr uns bedenken wohl, in which rapid demisemiquavers in the strings represent the rushing of the wind. The work also showcases Telemann's unique feeling for melody and his ability to blend sound and create a sense of balance. The cantatas are complemented by some of Telemann's greatest instrumental music: the Overture in D, the Sinfonia from his opera Miriways, 'Der stürmende Aeolus' from his well-known Wasser Ouverture, and the Largo from the Serenade Deutschland grünt und blüht im Frieden.