Handel's Brockes Passion, HWV 48, so-called because it sets a distinctive German-language text by Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747), is not often performed or recorded. The work has been thought to suffer both in comparison to Bach's Passion settings (a judgment Bach himself did not share -- he admired the work and may have included it in the pastiche St. Mark Passion, BWV 247) and to Handel's more Apollonian later choral works. The Brockes Passion might be called operatic: neither the Evangelist nor the chorus has much ...
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Handel's Brockes Passion, HWV 48, so-called because it sets a distinctive German-language text by Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747), is not often performed or recorded. The work has been thought to suffer both in comparison to Bach's Passion settings (a judgment Bach himself did not share -- he admired the work and may have included it in the pastiche St. Mark Passion, BWV 247) and to Handel's more Apollonian later choral works. The Brockes Passion might be called operatic: neither the Evangelist nor the chorus has much to do, and the action takes place among a fairly large set of principal singers. The cast, headed by Cody Quattlebaum as Jesus and Gwilym Bowen as Peter, rises to the occasion. However, "operatic" is an incomplete term. Brockes' libretto, drawing on all four gospels, comprises a group of punchy, sharp chunks that convey the Passion story in unusually physical, often even gory terms. Handel responds with music that, whether the work chimes with you or not, fits this text unusually...
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