A first recording for a major Passsiontide oratorio from the German Baroque.

Younger than Johann Sebastian Bach by a decade, Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765) was a significant composer of the High German Baroque era whose roots lie in the Thuringian town of Tiefenort. Born and raised there, he soon made a career for himself: via Eisenach (Bach’s birthplace) and Meiningen, he finally became court music director in Karlsruhe.

The sacred oratorio entitled Höchst schmerzensvoller Tag (Most sorrowful day) is Molter’s only Passion oratorio, receiving here its first recording. Indeed, in 2022, the ensemble Camerata Bachiensis effectively gave the work’s modern premiere. The Regensburg musicologist Wolfgang Horn came across the score while sifting through Molter’s compositions – about 350 of which have survived to this day – and edited performing parts from it.

Unlike in Passion settings of the time, there is no Evangelist to link the 28 brief movements of Höchst schmerzensvoller Tag. Recitatives and ariosos follow the pattern of earlier sacred dramas from Italy and Germany with roles given to Moses, the prophet Isiaiah and John the Baptist, prefiguring and anticipating the arrival of the Messiah.

Other arias are assigned to an embodiment of ‘The Soul’ including the oratorio’s touching expressive climax, ‘Liebster Jesu’. Choral parts are confined to punctuating chorales, which would have been sung by the congregation in Eisenach on a Good Friday between 1734 and 1741, when Molter was Capellmeister in the town.

In this recording, made in Leipzig around the time of the modern premiere, the chorales are taken one to a part by an experienced German quartet of early-music singers. Partnering them are the 16 unconducted members of the Camerata Bachiensis who produced a previous album of concertos and cantatas by Molter for Brilliant Classics in 2016, performing ‘with elegance and polish’ (Fanfare).