[ Harmonia Mundi / CD ]
Release Date: Sunday 20 April 2014
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On April 9, 1786, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach conducted a charity concert in Hamburg featuring three of his finest and most representative works: the Symphony Wq 183/1, the Magnificat (written in 1749 in the hope of succeeding his father as Cantor in Leipzig) and his stupendous 'Heilig' for double choir, of which he wrote, "It will be my swan song of this kind, and will serve to ensure that I shall not soon be forgotten after my death."
Released to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth, this recording recreating the programme of this historic concert confirms the prophetic nature of the composer's words. Hans-Christoph Rademann leads the RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and a stellar cast of soloists (including soprano Elizabeth Watts) in definitive recordings of these fascinating and innovative works.
"Rademann and his Berlin forces make the strongest possible case for it, with fresh, athletic choral singing, playing of crackling, fizzing energy and excellent solo work...This is the finest recording of CPE's choral masterpiece I have heard....set to be one of the discs of the CPE anniversary year." GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE AWARD WINNER 2014 - Baroque Vocal
"Hans-Christoph Rademann finds eloquence in the choral music and lets the Berlin Akademie rip with edgy tone in the symphony." (Observer)
"Chorus and orchestra launch the work in exhilarating style, as Bach emulates his father's trumpety celebratory style, but with Vivaldian panache...This is a glorious disc." (Sunday Times)
"a fine reconstruction of the second half of a concert [CPE Bach] conducted in Hamburg on Palm Sunday, 1786. So vivacious is the choral singing and orchestral playing under Hans-Chrisoph Rademann that it's a shame they did not include every work from that occasion." (BBC Music)
"The energetic and committed performances of the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor under Hans-Christoph Rademann make this music a joy to listen to ... an excellent introduction to C.P.E Bach's work." (Early Music Today)
"I haven't said much about the performances-perhaps because these singers and players-and conductor-are so in touch and in tune with the music, it all seems so perfectly judged, well-articulated, correctly paced, stylistically pertinent, the nuances and overall expressive elements so profoundly felt in both ensemble and among the very fine soloists, captured in ideal sound at Berlin's Jesus-Christus-Kirche, that nothing more need be said." (10/10 ClassicsToday July 2014)
Magnificat in D, Wq. 215 (H772)
Heilig (Te Deum Laudamus), Wq. 217 (H778)
Symphony in D major, Wq. 183/1 (H663)