When 40-year-old Georg Philipp Telemann accepted the post of music director in Hamburg, no one could have imagined that the composer would hold this position for 46 years, remaining an active and searching artist until the end. The concert programme includes works related to this cultural centre, important for the artist’s biography: Die Tageszeiten, Die Donnerode, and Die Auferstehung.

In Hamburg, Telemann composed one cantata a week, one passion each year for Easter, one oratorio and a serenade for the captain of the city guard, took care of the performance of music during masses in five of the most important churches, and graced all religious and city-related occasions. After two decades in Hamburg, overwork and other factors made themselves felt with chest pains. Around 1740, Telemann decided to limit himself strictly to performing the contract, gave up public concerts, stopped publishing music, and presented new music much less frequently. During this “retirement”, the composer took up gardening. He used his international contacts to bring interesting plants from the world (Handel sent collections twice) and soon the garden, then located just outside Hamburg, began to be famous as a place where you can see beautiful and rare plants. An unexpected turn came in 1755, when the poetry of the generation of Telemann’s grandchildren inspired the composer to create new works. Three of them will be heard during the concert.

Die Tageszeiten (The Seasons of the Day) begins with a three-movement sinfonia depicting the rising dawn, followed by four cantatas. The closing night is a pretext for Christian considerations about death as an introduction to a better existence in the other world. Die Auferstehung is like a mirror image of the above-mentioned composition – it begins with the darkness of death, which is overcome by God’s Son. The work is one-movement, devoid of a sinfonia and introductory chorus, and mostly consists of accompaniment recitatives. Die Donnerode is a cantata for the 17th Sunday after Holy Trinity, enjoying great recognition. Telemann soon composed a second movement, transforming the work into a kind of oratorio.