LOEWE Das Sühnopfer des Neuen Bundes (Passion Oratorio)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: (Johann) Carl (Gottfried) Loewe
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Oehms
Magazine Review Date: 05/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 103
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: OC1706
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(Das) Sühnopfer des neuen Bundes |
(Johann) Carl (Gottfried) Loewe, Composer
(Johann) Carl (Gottfried) Loewe, Composer Andreas Burkhart, Baritone Arcis Vocalists, Munich Georg Poplutz, Tenor L'Arpa Festante Ensemble Monika Mauch, Soprano Thomas Gropper, Conductor Ulrike Malotta, Mezzo soprano |
Author: Peter Quantrill
Dating from 1847, Das Sühnopfer (‘The Expiatory Sacrifice of the New Covenant’) opens in a sombre C minor and remains there for much of its 100 minutes. There are Mendelssohnian moments such as a brief F minor scena for Mary Magdalene and female chorus, but the comparison does Loewe no favours. In harmonising the chorales, he borrows heavily on 17th- and 18th-century models compiled by Johann Kuhnau, while his own inclination tends towards the well-trodden path.
Fashioned by a hymn researcher and teacher in Loewe’s adopted home of Stettin, the libretto follows North German Passion models in its alternation of biblical narrative with lyrical reflection. Any distinction between them is diffused and integrated by Loewe in sharing what would otherwise be separate parts for an Evangelist and Christus between the four soloists, though the tenor still takes the lion’s share of the work.
Having recorded a pair of oratorios by Graun, a Berlin contemporary of Bach, these forces bring the same period pitch, German Baroque performance style and acutely musical sensitivity to bear on Das Sühnopfer. A rival Naxos album from 2006 works within the same parameters but it’s a live recording, with attendant slips in tuning and ensemble. Working under studio conditions in a softly resonant Munich church, Thomas Gropper secures a much more polished performance. Try No 30, an airborne chorus for Zion’s daughters supported by a delicately vaulted cello line, and if Loewe’s blend of hand-me-down Bach and Schumann appeals, this new recording offers every incentive to investigate further.
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