The An­gels Ge­ne­ve (CH)

German Baroque

"I'm going to my father" - Graupner & Telemann

However sublime and untouchable the great Bach may be, he is not the only one in Baroque Germany! Stephan MacLeod and his ensemble Gli Angeli Genève know this well, as they have long included the music of his compatriots in their programme alongside their ongoing complete recording of the cantatas of St. Thomas Cantor. As is well known, they brought the brilliant, short-lived work of Nicolaus Bruhns (who, like Schubert, died at the age of just 31) back from oblivion with a bang in 2008 as part of their first recording of German Baroque cantatas. It is no wonder that today they are interested in Telemann (who was already featured on the first Sony cassettes) and especially in Christoph Graupner who, like the former, first made a name for himself in Hamburg, a cosmopolitan city to which he donated several operas. He then distinguished himself at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt, where he was so highly valued that his salary was generously increased without hesitation when, in 1723, he was considered to succeed Kuhnau as cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig, where the court finally reluctantly accepted the application of a certain … Johann Sebastian Bach. Gli Angeli Genève and Stephan MacLeod (who, as always, conducts with his deep voice) present us, in mutual mirroring, 2 x 2 sacred cantatas by these two Hanseatic masters who, in contrast to the sedentary Johann Sebastian, are travellers in spirit.

Stephan MacLeod, bass & conductor

Aleksandra Lewandowska, soprano

Alex Potter, alto

Thomas Hobbs, tenor