“Alexander’s Feast or The Power of Musick. An ode wrote in honour of St. Cecilia” dates from 1736, a time when Handel was attempting to counter the dwindling interest in his Italian operas with oratorios in English. Indeed this work, which resembles an oratorio, found immediate popularity and was quickly counted alongside “Messiah” among his best-loved compositions. Only “Acis and Galatea” and “Messiah” were performed more frequently than “Alexander’s Feast” during Handel’s lifetime. This high-profile recording features the singers Miriam Feuersinger, Danial Johannsen and Matthias Helm, together with the Kammerchor Feldkirch and Concerto Stella Matutina under Benjamin Lack.

It was Christoph Graupner who was selected as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig after Johannes Kuhnau, and it was only the fact that Graupners patron in Darmstadt did not let him go that Johann Sebastian Bach got the job! In fact Graupner was the more famous and more modern composer during those years, yet history almost forgot him for more than two centuries even having composed five times as many cantatas as Bach. An important and highly praised step in the re-discovery or Graupners music was already presented by the soprano Miriam Feuersinger and her ECHO Klassik awarded debut release on Christophorus together with the Capricornus Consort Basel. She is now joined by countertenor Franz Vitzthum for a new album of duo cantatas. This is music of great depth, with the two voices blending so well that sometimes they seem just one.

The first recording of Rameau's sublime masterwork on CD for more than 20 years: Hugo Reyne and La Simphonie du Marais present this full and original version based on souces in the library of the Paris Opera. Hugo Reyne, Nicolas Sceaux and La Simphonie du Marais have made their own edition of this seminal work, recorded in concert and rehearsal in the Vienna Konzerthaus at the Rexonzanzen Festival in January 2013.