Valer Sabadus
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J. S. Bach G. Ph. Telemann Arias Valer Sabadus Kammerorchester Basel Arias Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Bach 1 “Ich habe genug” 6:50 11 “Et exsultavit spiritus meus” 2:12 from the cantata / aus der Kantate Ich habe genug, BWV 82:a from Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243 (version for soprano / Fassung für Sopran) aus dem Magnificat D-Dur, BWV 243 Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) Telemann 2 “Wo ist das Ende meiner Plagen… 6:20 12 “Mein Feind frohlockt ob meinem Schmerz… 4:36 Zeige dich, geliebter Schatten” (Honoricus) Eifersucht, du Kind der Höllen” (Zemir) from the / aus dem Singspiel Sieg der Schönheit, TWV 21:10 from the / aus dem Singspiel Miriways, TWV 21:24 Bach Valer Sabadus, countertenor / Countertenor Concerto in E Major for Violin, Strings and Basso continuo, BWV 1042 Konzert E-Dur für Violine, Streicher und Basso continuo, BWV 1042 Julia Schröder, violin and direction / Violine und Leitung 3 I. Allegro 6:50 Kammerorchester Basel 4 II. Adagio 5:28 5 III. Allegro assai 2:31 Bach 6 “Laudamus te” 4:16 Aria from the Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 Arie aus der Messe in h-Moll, BWV 232 Telemann 7 “Ich fliehe Dich, vergallte Liebeslust... 3:26 Lass in Augen Feuer blitzen” (Honoricus) from the / aus dem Singspiel Sieg der Schönheit Bach 8 “Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust” 6:31 from the cantata / aus der Kantate Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170 Bach 9 “Schlafe mein Liebster” (Wollust) 8:38 from the cantata / aus der Kantate Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen, BWV 213 Telemann 10 “Hò disarmato il fianco” (Bertaridus) 3:19 from the opera / aus der Oper Flavius Bertaridus, TWV 21:27 Bach and Telemann The first of these works was Sieg der Schönheit. It is a work that impresses by dint of its exciting plot, which is full of tension and contrasts, and by its powerfully expressive In the case of all the great musicians, whose lives overlapped chronologically one al- music, which covers a wide range of affects or emotions. Sieg der Schönheit was first ways wishes they had known each other and ideally valued one another’s work. In the performed in July 1722 and remained in the repertory of numerous other opera houses case of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann, we do in fact know that the until 1735. The libretto was initially written by Christian Heinrich Postel, who prior to his two men were close friends, their contacts similar to those that existed between Joseph death in 1705 had been arguably Hamburg’s leading librettist of the late seventeenth cen- Haydn and Mozart. They got to know one another while they were working at two princely tury, and is based on a Venetian original. Telemann rewrote Postel’s libretto, adapting it courts only eighty kilometres (fifty miles) apart: Telemann was the court Kapellmeister to suit his novel music and the more developed aria form of his time. This version has not in Eisenach from 1708 to 1712, while Bach was the organist, concertmaster and, later, survived. The opera was later revised for performances in Braunschweig, when the arias the temporary court Kapellmeister in Weimar, where he was employed from 1708 to 1717. were retained but the recitatives are believed to have been rewritten and new dances According to the reminiscences of Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was also Tele- added. It is in this final form that the work has come down to us. mann’s godson, the two men met regularly and held each other in high regard. Carl Philipp Emanuel succeeded Telemann as the director of music in Hamburg, but none of his own Central to the plot is the sack of Rome by the Vandals under Genseric, here called Gei- children followed in their father’s footsteps. It was not until two generations later that his serich, in AD 455. The main characters are, on the one hand, the victorious king and two grandson Georg Michael Telemann upheld the family tradition by becoming music director of his heroes, Honoricus and Helmiges, and, on the other, Empress Eudoxia, her daugh- in Riga. ters and the Roman patrician Olybrius. Although defeated by Geiserich, Eudoxia has been liberated from a tyrannical usurper and husband. The various conflicts that motivate the multilayered plot arise from the demands placed on the apparently helpless women by “A God-given genius and one who is their new rulers. Each of the characters develops his or her own view of the world, and tremendously hard-working” all of them attempt in their own ways to reconcile the contradictions between what is demanded by society and what they feel in their hearts. In setting this vicissitudinous Georg Philipp Telemann wrote several thousand sacred, secular and instrumental works, plot to music, Telemann wrote a series of emotionally charged arias but also included contributing to the most disparate genres and earning a reputation as one of the most others that are contemplative, virtuosic and songlike. All are notable for their great and prolific composers in the whole history of music. In spite of this, he fell into unjustified distinctive variety. Few other operas avail themselves so resolutely of the full range of neglect in the wake of his death and was forgotten for almost two centuries. Not until the contemporary instruments, and rarely do we encounter elsewhere such a wealth of sur- 1950s did a systematic reappraisal of his output get underway, when influential musicians prising tone colours. such as Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt and Nikolaus Harnoncourt recorded his works and allowed a wider audience to appreciate the impressive variety of his musical ideas. During his years in Hamburg, Telemann staged a round dozen of Handel’s opera. Flavius Bertaridus was Telemann’s penultimate work for the Oper am Gänsemarkt. In it the in- Telemann’s own contemporaries invariably spoke of his abilities in terms of only the most fluences of the Italian style are clearly discernible. Its many large-scale arias attest to extravagant praise, fascinated, as they were, not only by his skilful compositional tech- the presence in the cast of several outstanding virtuosos. Only a single performance of nique but also by his wit and, more especially, by his particular gift for combining different the opera is documented on 23 November 1729. Flavius Bertaridus is also Telemann’s only national styles and quotations from more popular genres in order to create something surviving opera seria. The libretto is the work of both Telemann and Christoph Gottlieb new, namely, what was known as “mixed taste”. Following Telemann’s death, the German Wend and is based on an existing libretto by Stefano Ghisi that had been set to music by composer and music teacher Johann Heinrich Rolle asked rhetorically: “For how many Carlo Francesco Pollarolo and performed in Venice in 1706 under the title Flavio Bertarido, more years would music in Germany have remained wretched and pitiful if there had been re dei Langobardi. no Telemann to drag it out of the darkness through his God-given genius and tremendous hard work and given it a very different and newer momentum?” In terms of its subject matter – familiar from settings of Rodelinda by both Handel and Carl Heinrich Graun – Flavius Bertaridus is a typical opera seria with its schematized conflict And yet even today Telemann’s vast output continues to lead a shadowy existence that between a cruel tyrant, Grimoaldus, and the legitimate ruler, the dethroned King Flavius. has been eclipsed by the works of his fellow composers. The present recording features The plot is permeated by intrigue and by conflictual relationships between various sets a series of thrilling recitatives and arias from three of Telemann’s pioneering stage works of lovers. The libretto is written in a mixture of German and Italian that was typical of and compares and contrasts them with works by his colleague and friend Johann Sebas- the operas performed in Hamburg at this period. It owes its theatrical effectiveness to tian Bach. All were written in Hamburg in the 1720s and postdate Telemann’s assumption the tightly interwoven strands in its action. It is also well proportioned and laid out along of the post of director of the Oper am Gänsemarkt. Between 1722 and his final season in skilful lines that help to generate a sense of tension. The characters are treated almost 1738 he wrote some twenty new operas for the company. as equals, and all of them are subtly portrayed. Irrational passions such as vengeance, jealousy, fury, lust and even despair are offset by virtues like loyalty and a sense of family Bachian parody and virtuoso instrumental music or else they are transformed into positive, rational feelings. In setting this emotionally charged drama, Telemann devised a musical language, which, highly expressive and for- Johann Sebastian Bach – Telemann’s better-known colleague and friend – was not only mally varied, is Italianate in style. a master of fugue and counterpoint, he was also a true specialist in the art of recycling. The aria “Schlafe, mein Liebster” comes from his secular cantata Lasst uns sorgen, lasst Telemann’s own autograph score of his opera Miriways has not survived. Its oldest source uns wachen BWV 213 that Bach wrote in Leipzig for the eleventh birthday of Crown Prince is a copy of the score that was prepared in Hamburg in 1728 and that is now lodged in the Friedrich Christian. And it was in Leipzig that Bach conducted its first performance in Music Department of the Berlin State Library (Preußischer Kulturbesitz). The work was 1733. Parts of this dramma per musica on the Greek myth of Hercules – the cantata is awoken from its slumbers in 1992, when it was performed in concert at that year’s Mag- also known as The Choice of Hercules and Hercules at the Crossroads – were then reused deburg Telemann Festival.