Liberation of Israel

Das Befreite Israel originated in a period of renewed compositional creativity after Telemann had been inspired in his late age by the gallant, ""empfindsame"" style of younger composers working in Berlin, such as C.P.E. Bach, Quantz, F. Benda, C.H. Graun and Agricola, and by the intensely personal and emotional poetry of a new generation of German authors such as Ramler, Klopstock, Cramer and Zachariä. Telemann's late "choral works" - most of them expressly intended for the concert hall - are thus representative of a typically North German rhetorical-declamatory and particularly image-rich tonal language that was to be further developed and refined by Johann Heinrich Rolle in particular, together with poets such as Patzke, Niemeyer and Sturm. Rolles Befreiungs Israels and his numerous other music dramas - in fact all operas without a scene, intended for the concert hall - display stylistic features that are often related to the literary "Sturm und Drang" movement of the 1770s.

Heroes who had liberated peoples, countries or cities, such as Zoroaster, the Biblical Judith or the Medieval Crusaders, were often featured in 17th- and 18th-century opera and oratorio librettos, but in times of regal absolutism, the desire for freedom, let alone achieving it, was not exactly the most popular theme. The rare freedom fighters whose names adorned the title of an opera, such as Arminius or Masagniello, were never presented in a positive light. A cautious exception to this is perhaps the salvation story of the people of Israel, who, albeit with God's help, first had to free themselves from the yoke of Egypt before being able to enjoy the freedom that He had promised. It was just as clear to Handel when he composed Israel in Egypt in 1739 as it was when his Messiah was premiered two years later. When listening to Telemann's and Zachariä's lyrical oratorios, however, and even more so to Rolles and Sturm's music drama, the parallel with the active personal inner liberation that was central to both Pietism and the burgeoning Enlightenment may not have escaped the notice of the then German bourgeois audience.

Il Gardellino is an internationally acclaimed Flemish period orchestra, which will perform in this concert with a full orchestra, four vocalists and four ripienists.

Normal price: 30€
Pensioners: 20€
Other concession groups: 15€

Note! Ticket prices are subject to a Ticketmaster handling fee of 2,50-3,00 € and an order fee of 1,50 €.