No-one will be surprised to learn that Telemann, himself a baritone, has dedicated a substantial part of his output to cantatas (some 1400 works in total!) for baritone, as the convention in the Protestant world at the time was that the character of Jesus was reserved for that same baritone voice. And so here is a series of deeply intimate Passion cantatas for solo bass, with a sense of immense pain sketched out masterfully by a composer who knows how to always stay original. This is almost a kind of religious play, in which the plot is relayed through short, sober recitations, and then illuminated through staggering arias that border on musical painting. Dutch bass-baritone Peter Kooy (or Kooij), a follower of the legendary Max von Egmond, whose career took off from the 1980s with Herreweghe in the La Chapelle Royale and the Collegium Vocale of Gent, gives us a velvety reading, against an instrumental backdrop provided by L’Armonia Sonora. We are given a breather between cantatas in the shape of several instrumental sonatas. The album closes on an aria taken from the great Passion oratorio Seliges Erwägen des bittern Leidens, "Gute Nacht, ihr meine Lieben". It is hard not to think of Bach with his "Gute Nacht" – Bach had already been evoked in one of the cantatas, Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen whose lyrics and spirit come close to Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne Tragen of the Cantor of Leipzig (itself also for solo bass!), note the little differences in formulation between Bach and Telemann, who were colleagues and friends. © SM/Qobuz