Christoph Demantius: Johannes-passion

Description

Christoph Demantius has largely been forgotten, likely because so little is known about his life. Born in late 1567 in Reichenberg, Bohemia, he studied in Wittenberg and served as cantor in Zittau before taking the same position at Freiberg Cathedral in 1604, where he remained until his death. Beyond these sparse details, his biography offers little more. His body of work, however, is anything but modest. Among his compositions, the Johannes-Passion of 1631 stands as a monumental achievement - a pinnacle of early Baroque Passion settings. In this work, a six-voice ensemble narrates the Passion story "collectively", employing intricate vocal counterpoint and an unparalleled expressive intensity. Ensemble director Alexander Schneider has included music by Andreas Hammerschmidt, Heinrich Schutz, Johann Hermann Schein, and other contemporaries to enrich the program. The result offers a vivid reconstruction of how a Good Friday service in central Germany might have sounded - assuming, of course, that an ensemble as skilled as Polyharmonique was performing.