In the end, only the flames rejoice: they sing in chorus while they burn Jan Hus. The church, on the other hand, is stubborn, politics opportunistic – and the Bohemian reformer is dead, sentenced to the stake at the Council of Constance in 1415. In 1841, Carl Loewe, cantor at the Stettin Marienkirche, dedicated an oratorio to him, which was premiered by the Berliner Singakademie but never appeared in print. The fact that the Arcis vocalists are now presenting it to the public in the Sendlinger Himmelfahrtskirche is a clever move by their choir director Thomas Gropper. After all, Carl Loewe is not only familiar to older concert-goers, but also as a composer of ballads that were once much sung. In 2019, the Arcis vocalists also released their oratorio “Das Sühnopfer des Neues Bund” on a record, which has now even been picked up by other Munich choirs.
“Jan Hus” was also recorded by Bayerischer Rundfunk before the performance and will be released next year under the Oehms Classics label. With the orchestra L’arpa festante, the soprano Monika Mauch, the mezzo-soprano Ulrike Malotta and the bass-baritone Dominik Wörner, the cast is more than solid. Above all, the tenor Georg Poplutz gives the title character with a pronounced text design an internalized conviction.
After all, all inner conflicts have already been fought out when the action begins. Hus is accompanied on his way to Constance for two parts, and the Council is only dealt with concisely in the third part. The fact that the hour-and-a-half work seems rather static and undramatic is largely due to the libretto by the scholar and pedagogue August Zeune. He and Loewe, who left 17 oratorios and six operas behind him, work with an interesting hybrid of forms: “Jan Hus” is structured on the one hand according to Bach’s oratorio model of chorales, on the other hand it contains operatic aria models and genre scenes such as student and gypsy choirs.
Loewe also has some nice ideas in detail, for example when the dramatic overture is broken up by an incipit sung a cappella by the four soloists. Or for the Flame Choir, which is more macabre than moving. Ultimately, Loewe remains too much of the conservative cantor for that. Who masters his counterpoint (as one can hear in some fugal choral movements), but who lacks melodic inspiration and who never strays from well-trodden paths in harmony. “Jan Hus” is an insight into the choral culture of the 19th century, which should enrich the discographic archives more than the everyday concert life.