Music for the Ascension (German: Himmelfahrt) of Christ and its associated observances was common enough during the Baroque era;
Georg Philipp Telemann
wrote more than 20 Ascension cantatas, an attractive example of which is heard here.
Bach
wrote music for the Ascension as well: the brief but vivid
Cantata No. 128, BWV 128 ("Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein")
, and the longer
Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11
. The latter pieces, fitted out with recitatives and arias, is sometimes called the
Ascension Oratorio
. These are impressive works, but not one of them is terribly common, making this release from
Lionel Meunier
, his 16-singer
Vox Luminis
ensemble, and the
Freiburger Barockorchester
most welcome. The performances here are superb.
Meunier
's singers bring a rare sense of the text and its exuberance; sample the opening chorus of the
Cantata No. 128
, with its vivid depiction of the ascent into the heavens. In the
,
draws on the talents of an excellent group of soloists from his group; hear especially tenor
Raphael Höhn
in several movements and
Zsuzsi Tóth
in the big aria "Jesu, deine Gnadenblicke." The
Telemann
cantata is a lot of fun. This is admittedly not the word that might come to mind for these texts that are, to borrow a phrase, half in love with easeful death (which annotator
Michael Maul
concedes may be "irritating from a modern perspective"), but hear how
is capable both of arias that
might have written ("Ich will alle Stunden zählen") and those containing harmonic moves
would never have dreamed of ("Mein Schifflein treibet auf den Wellen"). The
Alpha
label contributes clear, idiomatic sound from the Evangelische Kirche Peter und Paul in the German town of Gönningen, rounding out an exciting and satisfying package that hit classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2024. ~ James Manheim