Christmas cantata with an original cast
The work by the early Romantic composer Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich from Aargau surprises with a strongly changing cast and a rather dramatic structure.
Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich (1803-1836) was born in Brugg in the canton of Aargau and is today regarded as the most important Swiss composer of the early Romantic period. For five years now, the International Fröhlich Society in Brugg has been working to promote and publicize his music. Initiator Barbara Vigfusson organizes an annual Fröhlich Day with renowned performers, while her husband Johannes Vigfusson devotes himself with great care to the edition of his works.
Now, around a year ago, Amadeus-Verlag published the first edition of Fröhlich's Christmas cantata for soloists, choir and piano has been published. This cantata should actually have been performed on Fröhlich Day in October 2020, but Corona has made this impossible.
The Christmas cantata is Fröhlich's Passion Cantata (Éditions Cantate Domino, Neuchâtel, CD 1193), which was sung on Fröhlich Day in 2019. Formally, both have an original, variable instrumentation with different choirs and solos, both are accompanied by a piano and both have a text by Fröhlich's brother, the reformed theologian and poet Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich. Both oratorios were also composed shortly after Fröhlich's return to Switzerland from Berlin, where he had studied at Zelter's Singing Institute.
This is how the Christmas cantata in November 1830, "without compromising the musical demands", as Vigfusson writes in his edition report. "It gives the impression of a demonstration of the various possibilities of the choral art, in which the composer also proves his mastery of counterpoint to the Swiss public."
Each of the eight parts has a different instrumentation: from a simple piano song to a solo quartet, from a female and male choir to an eight-part mixed choir a cappella. Sections that begin as carols repeatedly lead to fugal climaxes with a final fugue. Rather surprising for a Christmas cantata is the rather dramatic structure of the music, which is most impressive in the solo parts with piano accompaniment. It is contrasted by sweet cantilenas. Varied and refreshingly vital Christmas music.
Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich: Weihnacht-Cantate for soloists, choir and piano, first edition of the score, edited by Johannes Vigfusson, BP 2861, € 36.00, Amadeus, Winterthur
