Graun: A Gentle Tenor - CD

Carl Heinrich Graun is known as Frederick the Great's court Kapellmeister, but less well known is the fact that Graun enjoyed an important reputation as a singer and that the king had originally engaged him as such at his court. In his obituary, the king characteristically honoured his court Kapellmeister with the words: We will not hear such a singer again! Graun's voice is characterised as a high tenor with great lightness and, according to a contemporary, he sang the slow pieces in particular very gently and touchingly. Aco Biscevic probably corresponds exactly to this voice type: as a haute-contre (a tenor with a very high, light voice), his vocal range lies between tenor and the falsetto countertenor. Graun composed the three secular cantatas presented on this recording as a world premiere for himself and his voice during his time in Wolfenbuttel. Biscevic is accompanied by the baroque orchestra of the Thuringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach under the direction of Michael Hofstetter, an expert in the discovery of young voices (think of Valer Sabadus or Samuel Marino).