Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Keiser: Der blutige und sterbende Jesus; Stölzel: Ein Lämmlein geht und tragt die Schuld

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week, and in that week the Lenten penitential period comes to an end. On Good Friday, the Passion of Christ is traditionally recounted to the faithful as given in one of the four Gospel accounts. The most famous of all the musical settings of the Passion is undoubtedly Bach's St. Matthew Passion (1728), which you heard on this program in Steve Petke's prerecorded presentation on Sunday, March 13th. Listen this Palm Sunday for, not one, but two baroque Passiontide oratorios by two different contemporaries of J. S. Bach. Neither of these are settings of New Testament scripture; rather, they are pious meditations upon the Passion by eighteenth century German literati.

Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739) was primarily an opera composer. He wrote German-language works for Hamburg's prestigious Goose Market opera house. In addition, like Bach in Leipzig, he had been appointed Kantor at the most important Lutheran church in town, the Hamburg Kathedral. Keiser's St. Mark Passion (1707) was published and subsequently performed all over Lutheran Germany. I broadcast a recording of it on Palm Sunday of 1997. His Passion Oratorio Der blutige und sterbende Jesus ("The Bloodied and Dying Jesus," 1705, rev. 1729) premiered not at the Kathedral but in a chapel nearby and employed opera singers and musicians from the Goose Market Theater.

Keiser's music for this oratorio is more operatic than what he wrote for his St. Mark Passion. The poetic text for "The Bloodied Jesus" leans heavily upon the Gospel of Matthew. Hear it this Palm Sunday in its presumed world premiere recording for the German CPO label (2 CD package). It was made in 2018 with the singers of Cantus Thuringia and period instrument players of Capella Thuringia, Bernhard Klapprott conducting. Fanfare magazine's reviewer James A. Altena says it is well recorded, expertly sung and played, and constitutes "...an unexpectedly treasurable find..." (Fanfare, Nov/Dec 2019 issue).

Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749) wrote some opera but was primarily a composer for the church. He held a post at Gotha. Bach thought very highly of him and performed Stölzel's numerous sacred cantatas in Leipzig. Bach also saw to it that Stölzel's Passion oratorio Ein Lämmlein geht und tragt die Schuld ("A Little Lamb goes forth and bears the Guilt of the World," 1720?, 1731) was performed on Good Friday of 1734 at Leipzig's Thomaskirche. Stölzel's "Lamb" oratorio was not published, but its score circulated in manuscript copies outside of Gotha. Two such manuscripts have survived and served as the basis for the world premiere recording of this long neglected masterwork.

Hungarian conductor György Vashegyi directs the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, with four Hungarian vocal soloists. Recorded in Budapest in 2018, the "Little Lamb" comes to us on a single Glossa compact disc. Writing for Fanfare (Jan/Feb 2020) reviewer David Reznick gave it his highest possible recommendation. Stölzel's Christmas oratorio from 1728 has also been recorded and is available on disc courtesy of the German MDG label. You'll get to hear it on this program as performed by Handel's Company come December.