A first recording for a major Passsiontide oratorio from the German Baroque.
Younger than Johann Sebastian Bach by a decade, Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765) was a significant composer of the High German Baroque era whose roots lie in the Thuringian town of Tiefenort. Born and raised there, he soon made a career for himself: via Eisenach (Bach’s birthplace) and Meiningen, he finally became court music director in Karlsruhe.
The sacred oratorio entitled Höchst schmerzensvoller Tag (Most sorrowful day) is Molter’s only passion oratorio, receiving here its first recording. Indeed, in 2022, the Ensemble Camerata Bachiensis effectively gave the work’s modern premiere. The Regensburg musicologist Wolfgang Horn came across the score while sifting through Molter’s compositions – about 350 of which have survived to this day – and edited performing parts from it.
Unlike in Passion settings of the time, there is no Evangelist to link the 28 brief movements of Höchst schmerzensvoller Tag. Recitatives and ariosos follow the pattern of earlier sacred dramas from Italy and Germany with roles given to Moses, the prophet Isiaiah and John the Baptist, prefiguring and anticipating the arrival of the Messiah.
Other arias are assigned to an embodiment of ‘The Soul’ including the oratorio’s touching expressive climax, ‘Liebster Jesu’. Choral parts are confined to punctuating chorales, which would have been sung by the congregation in Eisenach on a Good Friday between 1734 and 1741, when Molter was Capellmeister in the town.
In this recording, made in Leipzig around the time of the modern premiere, the chorales are taken one to a part by an experienced German quartet of early-music singers. Partnering them are the 16 unconducted members of the Camerata Bachiensis who produced a previous album of concertos and cantatas by Molter for Brilliant Classics in 2016, performing ‘with elegance and polish’ (Fanfare).
- Johann Melchior Molter was born in 1696 in Thüringen, where his musical talent was quickly recognised. He served in the orchestra at the court of Karlsruhe. Later he broadened his horizon by going to Italy, where he encountered Albinoni, Vivaldi and Alessandro Scarlatti. He imbued their melodious gifts, studied their instrumental skills and went home to Karlsruhe, where he spent the rest of his life as court composer.
- Molter’s works are festive and ceremonial, a happy mix of German counterpoint, Italian brilliance and French grandeur.
- This new recording presents the large scale Oratorio Höchst schmerzensvoller Tag, written for Good Friday. The work follows the model of the Passion oratorio, which was very popular in Protestant Germany from the beginning of the 18th century. The suffering and death of Christ is not depicted using quotations from the Passion accounts of the New Testament, but commented and reflected upon through contemporary poetry. The music is bold and dramatic, expressing the suffering of Christ in moving arias, recitatives and chorales.
- Performed by Julia Sophie Wagner (soprano), Susanne Langner (alto), Benjamin Glaubitz (tenor), Karsten Müller (bass) and the Ensemble Camerata Bachiensis, playing period instruments.
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