Though it is a Passion in the Lutheran tradition, Telemann's passion-oratorio of 1755 Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus) it includes no Evangelist, Christ or biblical text. The work is a natural development from Bach. The four soloists sing poetic paraphrases of the story in their recitatives and personal reflections in their arias. The audience is presumed to know the original. The choir sings choruses and chorales in regular measure throughout the score. This regularity gives the work a certain predictability. The music lacks invention. In the "Unsere Seele" chorus, the choir slavishly follows the chords. Peter's denial is set to the most obvious stepwise course through the harmony. Everything points to a rushed job on Telemann's part, not least the sleeve-note's story of how he came by the text in the first place: the poet was expecting music from someone else. The soloists are excellent but soprano Dorothee Mields in particular has a diamond-bright voice which soars magically in her one and only aria despite being hampered by Telemann's attempt to fit a completely inappropriate melody to the given text. The overture at least is rewarding. A chorale tune is plaintively blown through the counterpoint by authentic narrow-bore horns that make not a single slip. --Rick Jones