Ensemble Diderot’s resurrections of long-buried Baroque pearls leads us to more music from pre-Classical Germany. A particular joy is the opportunity to hear the darkly burnished tone of the Ensemble’s cellist, Gulrim Choï, as soloist in Ignatz Mára’s C major Cello Concerto. Mára was a leading member of Frederick the Great’s Berlin orchestra, who took the opportunity of Johann Janitsch’s Friday Academies to demonstrate their virtuosity. The Baroque solo cantatas were mostly written for private chamber music performance and were clearly composed to show off the virtuosity of a particular singer. The Apollo and Daphne myth is an ancient Me Too story where Daphne escapes her divine rapist through transformation into a laurel tree, while the god’s frustrated desire must itself be transformed into worship and devotion. Graun’s cantata focuses on the moment of Daphne’s transformation and Apollo’s reaction, Graun and his unknown librettist would have assumed that their educated audience knew the full story. The music is fabulous, tailor made for Anna Devin.
