G. P. Telemann: Oratorium zum Johannis-Fest “Gelobet sei der Herr”

In the church year 1730/31, Telemann performed a volume of special conception: Regular oratorios were to be heard inthe church service. And so the focus of our latest Telemann CD is his magnificent oratorio for the feast of St. John,Gelobet sei der Herr, with expressive texts by the poet and musician Albrecht Jacob Zell. Zell succeeds in imaginingdramatic, almost theatrical scenes, thus providing Telemann with models for tone-painting. Not only is the vocal castextremely lush, including three basses, but the instrumentation is also very rich, including the use of four horns and threetransverse flutes. Once again, Telemann unfolds a wide range of expression. The lament of the Egyptians over the slainchildren, in F minor and chromatic turns, is moving; the depiction of the fleeing people and their pursuers, who cannotreach them, is full of external movement and tension, with chains of sixteenth notes on the one hand and syllabicdeclamation on the other.

In both works, [Willens] strives for warmth from his modest forces, and tempos are never excessively fast. In the first oratorio, he employs emphatic accents and clear dynamic changes to carry the drama. — Fanfare, Jan/Feb 2023