In 1789 Mozart arranged George Frideric Handel's Messiah on behalf of a group of Viennese noblemen.He abridged the work in an effort to tauten the drama, transposed arias to suit his singers' abilities and he subjected it to a fundamental re-orchestration to adapt the sound of the work to the musical taste of his time. lt was not until the 20th century that the historical and musical value of Mozart's Messiah arrangement was reappraised. Mozart's interpretation of Handel's Counterpoint and his synthesis of Baroque and Classical stylistic elements give the work a compelling new sound.

When Schumann was offered the post of music director in Düsseldorf in 1850, his first main project was to perform the St. John Passion, which had never been presented there, in April 1851: “It is much bolder, more powerful, and more poetic than the St. Matthew. This one seems to me not to be free of diffuseness and to be exceedingly long, but the other – how compact, how thoroughly genial, and of what art!” Robert Schumann

Gardiner’s reading of the St. Matthew Passion is conceived and executed on the highest level, an example of period practice that is unlikely to be bettered any time soon. The performance as a whole vibrates with life: soloists are first-rate, and wonderfully well chosen for their respective parts, and the work of chorus and orchestra is exemplary. The recording, made in 1988 in the spacious ambience of The Maltings, Snape, near Aldeburgh, is well balanced and exceptionally vivid.

The five cantatas presented on this disc share several elements. They are all for solo bass and orchestra, and Der am Ölberg zagende Jesus deals with Christ’s agonies in the garden of Gethsemane, with three recitatives setting the scene surrounding two arias for Jesus, ending with an aria by the narrator inviting all to contemplate Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus liegt in letzten Zügen is a meditation on the moment of Christ’s death. Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen expresses the narrator’s desire to follow the way of the cross in Christ’s footsteps. The other two cantatas are more tangentially connected to the events of the passion, although they mention the passion as motivation for the sinner to prepare for eventual union with his Savior.

Philippe Herreweghe uses the second of Bach's four versions of the St. John Passion, the one from 1725, which substitutes some of the arias and the opening chorus, along with lesser changes. The result is somewhat more dramatic than the standard version, which Herreweghe recorded previously. Those familiar with the conductor's work will find his usual warmth, making the most of the lyric moments, but they'll also find greater sensitivity to rhythmic and dramatic thrust and a generally livelier approach. The singers are uniformly fine. Padmore is an unusually effective Evangelist, projecting the drama without undue overacting.

Johann Sebastian Bach's monumental St. Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday in 1727 at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. It is the largest single composition Bach ever wrote, both in terms of length and in terms of instrumental and vocal forces. It requires two choruses, two orchestras, four vocal soloists for the arias and vocal soloists for each of the various character parts. Philippe Herreweghe's 1999 recording of Bach's masterpiece features a stellar cast and was a perennial catalog bestseller.

Franz Szabo schrieb über diese Aufführung: »… Was Christoph Hammer und seine ›Neue Hofkapelle München‹ am Abend des Pfingstsonntags […] im Kolomanisaal darbrachten, kann man schlichtwegs nur als sensationell bezeichnen. Benedotto Marcellos Oratorium ›Joaz‹ bescherte zweieinhalb Stunden hochdramatischer, intelligenter, spannender und differenzierter Barockmusik, deren Schönheit alle Anwesenden restlos in ihren Bann schlug. […] Der österreichische Tenor Daniel Johannsen überzeugte als stimmprächtiger und wortdeutlicher böser Berater mit aufflackernd schlechtem Gewissen. […] Kaum zu glauben und ein weiterer Beweis für die höchste Qualität dieses Ensembles, daß die Künstler nur wenige Tage an der Erprobung des Stückes arbeiten konnten. […] Beruhigend zu wissen, dass dieses Oratorium zum oftmaligen Nachhören vom ORF aufgenommen wurde.«

The performances of these concertos share the same characteristics of Volumes 1-3: bravura playing, clean melodic lines, especially in the solo parts, and discrete, elegant phrasing. In keeping the textures light, Handel created works of great charm and instant appeal. These recordings capture their best qualities.

This CD is a continuation of the set of Handel organ concertos recorded in the Oud-Katholieke Kerk of The Hague in September 1975. These were originally recorded in quadraphonic sound with the engineers achieving a splendid natural sound with plenty of presence. The masterful performances sound authentic indeed. These are the only multi-channel recordings of this music and highly recommended.

Charpentier's Te Deum written in the bright key of D major features a four-part choir and eight soloists. It displays the composer's total command of religious music combined with a gift for melodic writing. Brilliant and majestic, yet profound, this Te Deum (Charpentier wrote four Te deums) was probably composed to celebrate the victory at Steinkerque in August 1692 during the wars against the countries of the League of Augsburg. [The struggle would eventually be in vain; and Strasburg, and the Palatine succession lost to France].

Celebrating the 300th anniversary of Handel's great Brockes-Passion: a long-neglected masterpiece by this most brilliant composer, from a libretto by his friend, Barthold Brockes, one of Germanys leading poets. The culmination of two years of scholarly research by a team of scholars and musicologists from the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, King's College London, Open University and more, working alongside Music Director Richard Egarr and editor Leo Duarte. Consulting 15 manuscript sources from 11 collections in 5 countries, this is the most substantial edition of this work yet, including as appendices extra movements and Charles Jennens' partial English translation in their world premiere recordings.

Youthful Viennese pianist Till Fellner has performed J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier to critical acclaim across Europe, and has made it the backbone of his recital repertoire. For this recording of Book I, Fellner performs the 24 preludes and fugues with a rich and full sound, yet with the refinement and fastidious control required in these comprehensive studies of Baroque keyboard technique. Articulation and balanced phrasing are of paramount importance, and Fellner's energies are directed to the clean execution of lines and the careful shading of contrapuntal voicings. What emotion he communicates is subtle and somewhat constrained to the contrasting characters of each pairing – the preludes and fugues often play off each other – yet his interpretations are quite colorful and varied over the course of the set. Neither cerebral nor effusive, Fellner renders the music in an appealing middle area between schools of interpretation, and achieves imaginative results that should please both traditionalists and fans of period practice.

During the 1990s, Collegium Musicum 90 and Simon Standage released several volumes of Albinoni concertos, which proved popular with critics and public alike. The concertos were released as discs of single oboe concertos, double oboe concertos, and string concertos. In this re-issue on the Chaconne label, the concertos are presented in opus number order, showing the contrasting colours and tonalities of the concertos as they originally appeared.

Fascinating performers and audiences alike with their architectural perfection as well as their emotional range, these are works that lend themselves to very different interpretations, and on this recording it is the Bach of Finnish violinist Jaakko Kuusisto we hear. Himself a composer – as well as violinist and conductor – Kuusisto remembers beginning to study individual movements from the set at the age of ten. The music has been with him ever since, and to him ‘no other works for the violin provide a higher challenge or greater beauty’.

The brothers Marcello, Alessandro and the more famous Benedetto, were born into an illustrious patrician family in Venice in 1684 and 1686 respectively. The eldest, with his eclectic talent, proved to be attracted to both the arts and the sciences from an early age; the youngest, better known as the “prince of sacred music”, was about to study the violin very young. According to legend, still children, Alessandro mocked him for his lack of talent in front of the princess of Brunswick, which made him swear to devote himself to musical studies in a zealous manner.