Telemann: Der Messias, Concerti

Georg Philipp Telemann based his compositions several times on texts by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, whose 200th anniversary of death we are commemorating this year. The best known (at least theoretically) are his settings of parts of the first and tenth chants of the Messiah, written in the 1750s and presented to a wider public in Hamburg's Drillhaus in 1759. Telemann was thus the first to bring parts of this famous epic into a valid musical form. It can certainly be assumed that Telemann and Klopstock met in person, especially as Telemann showed great interest in the latest literary trends right up to his old age. It might have been a challenge for Telemann to try his hand at a poetry written in strict hexameters that was so completely different from the usual cantata texts. So there are no recitatives and arias, but only a large through-composed form. This is absolutely unique for this time, and once again one is amazed at the ingenuity of the late Telemann! Veronika Winter, Marion Eckstein, Jan Kobow and Klaus Mertens are our soloists, the Telemannisches Collegium Michaelstein plays under the direction of Ludger Rémy.