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Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Stöltzel: Christmas Oratorio
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:
J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio (1735) has been frequently recorded, and I have featured some of those recordings at Christmas seasons past. On this Christmas Sunday you get to hear the world premiere recording of a Christmas oratorio by Bach's esteemed colleague, Gottfried Heinrich Stöltzel (1690-1749). Unlike Bach in Leipzig, Stöltzel wrote some operas, but he was primarily a composer for the church. He held a church post in Gotha, not far from Leipzig. Bach thought very highly of him and performed some of Stöltzel's numerous sacred cantatas. Bach also saw to it that Stöltzel's Passion oratorio, Ein Lämmlein geht und tragt die Schuld der Welt, was performed on Good Friday of 1734 in Leipzig's Thomaskirche. The world premiere recording of Stöltzel's Ein Lämmlein went over the air on this program on Palm Sunday, April 10th of this year.
We know that Stöltzel's Christmas Oratorio was performed at the Court Chapel of Gotha in 1724 over the three feast days, December 24-26. By contrast, Bach's Christmas Oratorio was intended for performance over the full twelve traditional feast days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany. Stöltzel wrote his own text for his three-day cycle of cantatas. They are grouped according to the order for worship of the Lutheran church service, which called for vocal music to complement the readings from the Epistles and Gospels. Taken up into Stöltzel's cycle is a German language Mass (Deutsche Messe) and a festive Te Deum Laudamus, plus instrumental interludes.
The entire audio lineup is presented on two MGD compact discs issued in 2003/2005. Handel's Company, a period instrumental group, teamed up with the chamber chorus of the Marien-Kantorei of Lemgo, also not far from Gotha. Together with four vocal soloists, the musical forces are directed by Rainer Johannes Homburg. These forces repeated for recording what they had performed in the St. Marien Church of Lemgo for the opening concert of the Lemgo international Organ Days festival of 2002.