courtesy of Naxos of America
All the attention that has already begun to come to a head over the celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday (which is more than a year in the future) seems to have obscured that 2019 is the 300th anniversary year of a long-neglected oratorio by George Frideric Handel. The composition is his HWV 48, known as the Brockes Passion. This is a rather unique approach to sacred music, because the account of the Passion is taken from a text by the German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes, published under the title Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus (the story of Jesus, suffering and dying for the sins of the world). Exactly when Handel chose to set this text is unknown; but the first documented performance took place in Hamburg in 1719, making this year the best approximation to celebrating the composition’s 300th birthday.
For the record, Handel was far from the only composer to set Brockes’ text. The best known of the others is probably Georg Philipp Telemann (TWV 5:1). Furthermore, excerpts from that text can be found in the arias that Johann Sebastian Bach composed for his BWV 245 setting of the Passion text from the Gospel of John; and, as the Wikipedia author for the Brockes source observes, signs of influence can also be found in the BWV 244 Passion setting based on the Gospel of Matthew. That same Wikipedia source observed that Bach performed both the Handel and Telemann settings during his tenure in Leipzig.
Following the completion of HWV 48, Handel’s oratorio saw publication in roughly 30 different editions, all of which appeared during the composer’s lifetime. Sadly, the original manuscript has been lost for some time. In addition, thanks to Handel’s visits to England, Charles Jennens (best known for providing Handel with the libretto for his HWV 56 Messiah oratorio) prepared a partial translation of Brockes’ text into English. Thus, the popularity of the oratorio extended beyond Germany at least as far as England; and it should be no surprise that the most significant celebration of this music should come from Great Britain.
The source of that celebration is the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) and its Director Richard Egarr. San Francisco readers probably know by now that, next season, Egarr will succeed Nicholas McGegan as Music Director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) & Chorale and that he will return to the PBO podium as a guest artist this coming February. For the HWV 48 project, Egarr worked with editor Leo Duarte to prepare an authoritative scholarly edition of the score. To this end Egarr and Duarte worked with scholars and musicologists from the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and King’s College London, among other resources.
The resulting score was used for a 300th anniversary performance on Good Friday this year. That performance was recorded, and the resulting album was released in this country about two weeks ago. That release draws upon the scholarly background for the performance, providing the curious reader with over 200 pages of booklet material. The project also presented an innovative approach to funding the entire project. The individual movements of the composition are relatively short, meaning that there is a total of 105 of them. Each of those movements has its own “personal support” from a donation; and the names of all the donors (except for those preferring anonymity) are included in the track listing.
The entire score fills two CDs. A third CD has two “Appendices.” One consists of only a few alternatives as variants. The remainder of the CD provides the premiere recording of all the English texts that Jennens had prepared. Serious musical scholarship never had it so good.
Those in San Francisco who have seen Eggar conduct on previous visits to PBO are familiar with his energetic style. On this recording that energy level keeps the basic Passion narrative moving along at a fair clip. Nevertheless, haste never dulls the intensity of the narrative itself. As listening experiences go, this performance of HWV 48 is definitely up there with the best accounts of the more familiar BWV 44 and BWV 45. Thus, while it may not be appropriate to associate the Passion with the current season, this anniversary release of HWV 48 deserves serious consideration as a gift to anyone that takes listening to music seriously.
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