Keiser / Vermeulen / Capella Orlandi Bremen - Theatralische Music [CD]

Reinhard Keiser's Kleine theatralische Musik contains arrangements of instrumental versions of opera numbers composed for Hamburg and performed there. With the greatest probability this work involves a collection of "theater music" compiled by the composer from his operas written prior to 1718. This work is complemented by further instrumental music as well as cantatas and arias by Keiser. The program covers a spectrum including Keiser's initial years in Hamburg, the period of his greatest success in the second decade of the eighteenth century, and his difficult traveling years following 1719. First, we have performances of works as they exist in their original form in the sources: the cantata "Die bis in den Tod geliebte Iris" and the "Theatralische Musik." Second, we have arias and a cantata from an anthology in the Berlin State Library. Third and last, we have interpretations of cantatas that in keeping with the composer's practice were taken over for his own arrangements. Reinhard Keiser is regarded as one of the most important German composers of the Baroque, and his Pomona previously released on cpo offers an ideal introduction to the world of the German-language Baroque opera. This new Keiser release once again offers proof of the profound stylistic knowledge and sophisticated instrumental and vocal culture of the ensemble led by Thomas Ihlenfeldt in an optimal reproduction.