…Jacobs…has mustered, with characteristic discernment, a highly responsive cast of soloists. Daniel Behle is a communicative Evangelist, responding alertly to Telemann's elegantly shaped recitative… As Jesus, Johannes Weisser brings warmth and appropriate gravitas. The remaining cast, fresh-voiced, lightly articulated and agile, gives uninterrupted pleasure, and that goes for the excellent RIAS Chamber Choir too.

The Hamburg poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes wrote the Passion oratorio libretto Der für dieSünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus for Reinhard Keiser to set to music in 1712. Handel composed a setting in London about four years later (probably for Hamburg), and in April 1716 Telemann's version was first performed in Frankfurt. The broody opening Sinfonia makes one think of Haydn's late orchestral writing at its most daring. The Berlin AAM's playing is lean and angular but the 35-strong RIAS Chamber Choir seems overpowering at times, and it would be good to hear this work performed by smaller and more integrated forces.
René Jacobs divides the soprano arias for the Daughter of Zion and the Faithful Soul between Birgitte Christensen and Lydia Teuscher (the booklet fails to indicate what singer performs which arias): 'Was Bärentatzen, Löwenklauen' has snappy percussive horn fanfares, and several contrasting arias during the scene of Christ's scourging are among the highest points of the oratorio. Marie-Claude Chappuis's singing of Judas's guilt-wracked scene, in which the betrayer resolves to commit suicide, is extraordinary. The trio 'O Donnerwort!' crackles with theatrical velocity.
Johannes Weisser is a grainy Jesus, but his declamatory singing in the volatile 'Erwäg, ergrimmte Natterbrut' is impressive. Donát Havár does not have a mellifluous timbre but is a good communicator of Peter's texts. Jacobs paces the oratorio as if it is a vivid religious opera: he omits six arias and two recitatives 'for reasons of dramatic coherence'. There are moments of brittle intensity that could have afforded more gentleness, but Jacobs's committed vision provides us with a valuable glimpse of Telemann's brilliant imagination.

Jacobs paces the oratorio as if it is a vivid religious opera… There are moments of brittle intensity that could have afforded more gentleness, but Jacobs's committed vision provides us with a valuable glimpse of Telemann's brilliant imagination.

A string of beautifully varied arias are leavened by chorals, and there is an astonishing trio for Three Believing Souls, describing the earthquake after the death of Christ. This is the avant-garde music of the period by an ever-inquiring, always rewarding composer.

Like Jacobs's earlier Harmonia Mundi recording of the opera Orpheus, it's a significant addition to the Telemann discography.

Telemann's musical setting highlights the drama with brilliant orchestral touches. Throughout, the orchestral playing is amazingly vivid and Birgitte Christensen as Mary is thrilling.

This is oratorio as opera: immediate, openly emotional, brilliantly characterised.