by Marvin J. Ward

Great Barrington, MA, 14 November 2009.  Georg Philipp Telemann spent the greater part of his career (1721-1767, the year of his death) in the German port city of Hamburg, after having turned down the position of cantor at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig that was subsequently offered to and taken by J.S. Bach, who was actually the 3rd person to whom the post was offered, the 2nd having been Christoph Graupner, who also turned it down.

Telemann’s duties were numerous [Things haven’t changed much for composers and musicians over the centuries, have they?]: he composed 2 cantatas every Sunday, as well as sacred and secular music for special occasions, taught music theory and singing, and directed a collegium musicum that gave weekly or bi-weekly performances, with some of the music being original works by him.  For a period of several years, he directed the opera house as well, but it went bankrupt, no doubt giving him some relief.  He was also a music publisher and wrote some music treatises later in life.  His music, like Bach's, was quickly forgotten after his death, but there was no Mendelssohn to revive it in the mid-19th century, so it waited 'til the mid-20th.

Lakeville, CT-based, 6-year old, mostly early music group Crescendo, under the direction of its founder, Christine Gevert, organist and choir master at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lime Rock, CT, offered a minimally representative sampling of 3 of his known 3,000+ compositions (many were lost during WW II) in the 1st of a pair of performances this evening, here in the 1st Congregational Church, which its VP, chorus member, and program commentator Juliet Mattila described as its ‘home away from home’ [The 2nd was at Trinity in Lime Rock on 15 November].  Crescendo also performs in the contiguous areas of NY State.

The program opened with a lovely concerto [grosso] in e for an unusual pair of instruments: alto recorder and transverse flute (traverso), played respectively by Tricia van Oers and Rodrigo Tarraza, unusual also in that it has 4 movements: largo, allegro, largo, presto, slow, fast, slow, faster, so to speak.  One might think that the 2 solo instruments could not be readily distinguished from each other by the ear, but on the contrary, they created a very pleasing, warm blend.  Gevert played the harpsichord to supply the continuo for the 8-member period instrument orchestra featuring some of the area’s and region’s usual suspects: Lisa Rautenberg, violin and concertmaster, Leah Gale Nelson, violin, Ann-Marie Barker-Schwartz, viola, David Bakamjian, violoncello, Jane Hershey, violone, Douglas Freundlich, theorbo, and Jay Bradley, tamburo (replaced by Ben Harms on the 15th).

Next came 1 of Telemann’s overwhelming number of cantatas (Do the arithmetic: 2 x 52 = 104 x 46 = 4,784; there must have been some repeat performances, as well as many lost compositions...), “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” in D, for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, chorus and strings, to a text from Psalm 96: 1-9.  Gevert conducted, and Edward Brewer played the organ to supply the continuo.  The work opens with an orchestral sonata, followed by a chorus, a duet, a recitative, a solo, another chorus, another solo, another duet, and a concluding chorus – note the nearly symmetrical structure in ascending and descending order from the center.  Crescendo’s 50-member choir consists of both amateurs and professionals.  Telemann was generally more forward-looking than Bach, writing in a more “galant” and less polyphonic style, but this, probably an early work, with a couple of fugues, reminded one of a standard Bach cantata.

After intermission came the pièce de résistance, the music composed for the centennial of the Hamburg citizen militia, the equivalent in today’s world of the 1st responders, as Mattila characterized the organization, the Hamburgische Kapitänsmusik 1730 – he must have composed 44 of these (having begun in 1723) for the annual celebration, the date being the only distinguishing element of their titles!  Not only the music, but also the libretto was by Telemann, drafted to be appropriate for the historic occasion, and this evening’s performance was also historic, since it was, as near as can be determined, its US première.  It was intended to be performed during the banquet, and consists of a Serenata: “Zu Walle, ruft alle!”, for soli, chorus, and orchestra, opening with the drummer, here split and adapted to enclose the meat of the work, the 9-movement oratorio “Jauchze, jubilier’ und singe,”  for 5 soli, 3 choirs, and orchestra.  The Serenata was addressed to the mayor and the militia, a call to action; its text was not by Telemann.  The story of the oratorio’s text is a debate among allegorical personages, a convention developed by Jean-Baptiste Lully in the 17th century, about whether is it better to be joyful or serious, happy or sad – the conclusion being a sort of draw, the need for some of both, and a call to praise God in a chorus set to the tune we know as the “Doxology” or “Old Hundredth/100th.”  The convention seems artificial, and the text un-compelling to modern minds, but the music is quite rhythmically varied and melodically entertaining, its style mirroring the meaning of the text, although portions advanced slowly.

Juiianne Baird was scheduled to sing the soprano roles this evening, but fell ill and lost her voice at the last minute, so her parts had to be re-distributed.  Counter tenor Martin Near, who was scheduled to sing the alto parts, and did, added some of them, as did tenor Dan Fisher.  One aria was played on soprano recorder (thus without the text) by van Oers.  The roster of vocal soloists was filled out by baritone John-Arthur Miller (in the Kapitänsmusik) and bass Steven Fassano.  In spite of this unfortunately necessary accommodation, the performance was spectacular, clearly pleasing the large audience that nearly filled the sanctuary.  In April, Crescendo’s spring concert will feature Latin-American Choral Music (Gevert has lived in Chile).  I can’t wait!