Messias (1759) - Einweihungskantate für die Rellinger Kirche

Georg Philipp Telemann's (1681-1767) rarely played Messias from 1759 surprises by dispensing with the biblical text and with a chamber musical structure unusual for the genre that gets along without the usual evangelist and the obligatory large choir score. At the same time the composer renounces on da capo arias in favour of an entire through-composition. Therefore Telemann's Messiah can be characterized as an "oratorical fantasia" deliberately turning away from the traditional forms of the oratorio. Thereby the Messiah of Telemann is strictly opposed to the better known correlate of Handel that puts its theological focus exactly on the biblical text set to music in large choirs. The Consecration cantata for the Rellingen Church (1756) is Telemann's artistic response to the largest natural catastrophe of the 18th century which moved people everywhere very intensively at that time: On the first of November 1755, an earthquake destroyed two thirds of Lisbon; about 30.000 people lost their lives. Like in the Donnerode the catastrophe is also reflected in the Rellingen consecration cantata, especially in the chorus Die Erde bebet und ward beweget. Besides, this music belongs to Telemann's largely scored works of this kind.