Carl Heinrich Graun: Iphigenia in Aulis – Barockwerk Hamburg & Ira Hochman

For years, barockwerk hamburg has enjoyed great popularity, especially for the revival of previously unpublished works from Hamburg’s musical history. Now the ensemble has recorded “Iphigenia in Aulis” by Carl Heinrich Graun after the libretto arrangement by Georg Caspar Schürmann for cpo. The story of the king’s daughter Iphigenia, who is to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon, is one of the classic tragedies of ancient Greece that continues to inspire the theater to ever new interpretations. At the age of just 24, Carl Heinrich Graun also became enthusiastic about the material and composed “Iphigenia in Aulis” 290 years ago. His youthfully fresh and colorful music was last heard on the stage of Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt Opera in 1731. The work centers on Iphigenia’s voluntary and selfless sacrifice in times of social crisis. Fatherly love and royal duty, loyalty and betrayal, irony and intrigue, and a wedding as the final chord provide all the ingredients for an opulent and varied baroque opera. It is true that the surviving manuscripts lack the music for all the recitatives and several other movements. But with the highly inspired music for 35 arias and the overture, the archives nevertheless possess a treasure that is lifted and brought to life here – with short interludes explaining the plot – full of enthusiasm and with great virtuosity.