Time 19:00
YouTube channel of the Polish Royal Opera
Retransmission on the YouTube channel of the Polish Royal Opera. The recording will be available until 19:00 on the 31st of December 2020.
The musical form of a cantata enjoyed the peak of its popularity in the Baroque era. In Protestant Germany, compositions of this genre played an important role during mass, hence the catalogues of works of the composers serving in churches are full of cantatas for each of the feasts in the liturgical year. Those written for Christmas are especially beautiful.
Georg Philipp Telemann is the author of over one thousand seven hundred cantatas. One of them is O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein TWV 1: 1200 – a piece traditionally performed on the second day of Christmas. The simple and moving sound of the choir opens and closes the composition, enveloping two beautiful soprano arias separated by a recitative. Written in the Italian style, the melodies delight the ear. An attentive listener will notice the illustrative character of the music, for instance in the middle of the second aria. Could the short notes repeated by the strings represent the cackling of the hen mentioned in the text?
The cantata BWV 133 by Johann Sebastian Bach, the composer whose style synthesized the achievements of the artists working in this genre before him, is equally joyful. The work was written and premiered in 1724 in Leipzig, on the third day of the Octave of Christmas. The composition is based on the melody of the song Ich freue mich in dir, as well as its text by Caspar Ziegler from 1697, supplemented with comments by an anonymous librettist. The charming, lively instrumental part perfectly reflects the joyful mood of Christmas, and the subtle use of rhetorical figures emphasizes the adoration and trust in the Holy Infant, expressed in the text. It is worth remembering that Bach most likely did not have a large vocal ensemble, and the four-part harmonies were performed by a quartet of singers. In order to recreate the sound of the original as accurately as possible, this is also how the polyphonic fragments will be performed during today’s concert.
Marta Dziewanowska-Pachowska
PROGRAM
Georg Philipp Telemann – Cantata O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein, TWV 1:1200
O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein ist
Neugebornes Menschenkind
O Kind, vor dem das Höllenreich erschrickt
Wenn mich Welt und Satan schrecken
Die ihr schwebt in grossem Leiden
Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133
Ich freue mich in dir
Getrost! Es faßt ein heil’ger Leib
Ein Adam mag sich voller Schrecken
Wie lieblich klingt es in den Ohren
Wohlan, des Todes Furcht und Schmerz
Wohlan, so will ich mich
PERFORMERS
OLGA PASIECZNIK SOPRANO
MARTA BOBERSKA SOPRANO
ANETA ŁUKASZEWICZ MEZZO-SOPRANO
SYLWESTER SMULCZYŃSKI TENOR
WOJCIECH GIERLACH BASS
THE CHORUS OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA:
MAGDALENA RUCIŃSKA SOPRANO
JOANNA TALARKIEWICZ ALTO
PAWEŁ KOWALEWSKI TENOR
MATEUSZ MICHAŁOWSKI BASS
THE PERIOD INSTRUMENTS ENSEMBLE OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA CAPELLA REGIA POLONA
KRZYSZTOF GARSTKA HARPSICHORD, CONDUCTOR
