cultural
A rarity among the Passion oratorios will be performed in Salzburg on Tuesday: Georg Philipp Telemann’s “The Blessed Consideration”. For decades, the work was more popular than the Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach, which dominate concert programs today.
Holy Week is the week of the Passion concerts: the St. Matthew or St. John Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach are particularly popular with the public and are therefore often played – in Salzburg, for example, on Maundy Thursday. But that wasn’t always the case: for decades, the Bach versions of Jesus’ Passion were seldom performed. On the other hand, Georg Philipp Telemann’s passion oratorio “The Blessed Consideration” was a much-performed work.
This Passion was first performed in 1728: Telemann wrote and composed the oratorio for the church of a workhouse in Hamburg. But this passion quickly became popular – and was performed for a good hundred years throughout the German-speaking world, says Virgil Hartinger, director of the Salzburg Bach Society, who himself sang at the Salzburg performance.
Especially popular in the 18th century
Telemann’s passion was particularly popular in the 18th century, says Hartinger: “There are performances in Hamburg, Lübeck, Frankfurt etc. almost every year. Bach’s oratorios, on the other hand, faded away with his death (1750, ed.) and were only then unearthed once more by Mendelssohn” – around 1815. Since then, the passions of Johann Sebastian Bach have become the more popular works.
In the 19th century, Georg Philipp Telemann’s Passion oratorio no longer corresponded to contemporary taste and fell into oblivion. Only in the last ten to fifteen years has the work been rediscovered by baroque musicians in German-speaking countries.
First performance in Salzburg for 20 years
The Salzburg Bach Society was at the forefront of this revival – they last performed the oratorio in Salzburg 20 years ago. Now is another one of the rare opportunities to hear the Telemann oratorio with us, says Hartinger: “I think the poetry of the baroque and the poetry of the present are getting a little bit closer. These very, very colorful and very, very highlighted descriptions (in the text of Telemann’s oratorio – note) are actually very modern. The music follows that. Accordingly, the music is also becoming more popular and modern.”
The oratorio will be performed by the L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra conducted by Michi Gaigg on Tuesday evening in the Great Hall of the Salzburg Mozarteum.