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Graun: A Gentle Tenor on 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).