DER TOD JESU

DER TOD JESU

Australian Orchestral Premiere of the Great Baroque Passion Oratorio

7pm, Good Friday, 6 April 2012 in St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane

Performed by the Badinerie Players, the Brisbane Chamber Choir, 

with soloists:    Shelli Hulcombe and Laura Coutts (soprano),

 

 Greg Massingham (tenor) and Jason Barry-Smith (baritone)

Admission Free

The Project

First performed in Berlin on 26 March 1755, German Baroque composer Carl Heinrich Graun’s iconic Passion oratorio was once one of the two or three most significant and most performed sacred music works in Europe. This will be its first full performance in Australia, although it was given with organ only in Melbourne in 1893. Using the best artists available and performed in a historically informed style, this premiere will convey the vibrancy and excitement of this great work to the audience.

The Work

After its premiere in the Berlin cathedral before an unusually large audience, Graun’s celebrated Passion Oratorio swiftly established itself as a major cultural event at Easter. Throughout North Germany and especially in Berlin it was performed almost every year for over a hundred years, playing a role somewhat like that of Handel’s Messiah in English-speaking countries – although its subject matter determined that it be performed at Easter, not Christmas. The text is by Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1725–1798).

The revival of interest in Baroque music has shone new light on Graun and his works, especially this once famous oratorio. Der Tod Jesu is about 100 minutes long, and will be performed with an interval. Less dramatic or grandiose than the Bach passions or Messiah, it has a more intimate and personal ambience, and is a good example of the powerfully emotional North German style known in Germany as Empfindsamkeit. The performance will be in German, with a translation provided in the programme.

The Composer

Carl Heinrich Graun (1703/4–1759) achieved great fame in his lifetime as Kapellmeister – chief opera composer and orchestra director – to the Prussian King Frederick II (“the Great”). His works were very popular and considered exemplary: they were studied by J. S. Bach and Beethoven, and even copied and “borrowed” by Handel.

The Conductor

During his long career as a professional musician and musicologist, Badinerie Player Dr Michael O’Loghlin has increasingly specialised in the music of the late Baroque period. After studies in Vienna and Salzburg with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and other international luminaries of the Baroque music movement, he toured throughout Europe as a player of the viola da gamba and violone with the Clemencic Consort and other specialist Baroque music ensembles. Reviewers of his book, Frederick the Great and His Musicians: the Viola da Gamba Music of the Berlin School (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008) have acknowledged him as a world authority on this repertoire.

For more information or informal discussion, please contact Dr Michael O’Loghlin.

If you wish to become involved as a Sponsor of the Australian Orchestral Premiere of this project, then please follow the link here to secure a front row seat through sponsorship, or email directly Dr Michael O’Loghlin.