Joaz

Benedetto Marcello (1686 - 1739), son of a Venetian senator, was a man of many talents and
possessed a wide range of interests. Educated in music, literature and jurisprudence, he was
employed for over twenty years as a civil servant in Venice but all the while developed his artistic
talents not only as man of letters, a poet and a theorist but also as a composer of instrumental
chamber music, masses, oratorios, cantatas, duets and works for the stage. In 1725 he composed
a serenata for Kaiser Karl VI and shortly thereafter the oratorio JOAZ (also for Vienna), on a
libretto by the resident court poet Apostolo Zeno. Here is a composer who, despite his
comprehensive knowledge of common forms, style and technique and whilst paying all due
attention to contemporary structures, is not afraid to go beyond the borders of conventionality.

The music critic Franz Szabo wrote the following about this performance:
"... The performance by Christoph Hammer and his ›Neue Hofkapelle München‹ on Whitsunday
evening [...] at the Kolomanisaal can only in all simplicity be called sensational. Benedetto
Marcello's oratorium ›Joaz‹ made for two and a half hours of highly dramtic, intelligent, thrilling
and sophisticated baroque music whose beauty totally enthralled the entire audience. [...] The
Austrian tenor Daniel Johannsen was a convincingly strongvoiced and evil-tongued advisor with
a flaring bad conscience [...]. It is hard to believe and further proof of the quality of this ensemble
that the artists had only a few days to rehearse this work. [...] How comforting to know that the
ORF has recorded this oratorio in order to allow us repeated listening pleasure on CD."