Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Collegium Vocale Gent . Daniel Reuss

The German composer Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759) died in the same year as Handel. Together with Johann Adolf Hasse, these three were regarded as the most important German composers of Italian opera. Graun was chorusmaster in Berlin and responsible for the opera house of the enlightened monarch Frederik II. The oratorio 'Der Tod Jesu' is not based on one of the four gospels, but was written by Karl Wilhelm Ramler. The text was was set to music by several composers, Telemann's version being the best known. Graun's oratorio was commissioned by Anna Amalia of Prussia, Frederik II's younger sister. After an attempt to set the text to music herself, she wisely decided to hand it over to Graun. Interestingly, this oratorio clearly reflects the ideals of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Christ is the epitome of a virtuous life; most of the chorales and arias relate the events surrounding the period of the passion to the lives of individual believers. Due to Graun's fluent writing style, 'Der Tod Jesu' has become a pleasant and interesting addition to the traditional passion repertoire by Bach.