'Lamento' is a stunning collection of rarely-heard music by the Bach family. Magdelena Kozena brings these long-forgotten treasures to life with her trademark artistry and acclaimed style, accompanied by Musica Antiqua Koln and Reinhard Goebel. "A voice that has already melted some notably stony hearts… one of the class vocal acts of the early 21st century." - The Times (London)

Donna, che in ciel di tanta luce splendi is a full-length cantata and the masterpiece in this recital. The introductory Sinfonia captures attention imperatively with its grandeur and turbulence. Then the succession of recitatives and arias, unfailingly alive with dramatic imagination, provides superb opportunities for the singer, all of which are taken here with well-grounded eagerness.

It was the Bachs who launched the harpsichord on its career as a concerto soloist and the sons did not wait to follow in father's wake; the first of Carl Philipp Emanuel's 52 concertos, spanning more than 50 years, probably just predates the first of JSB's. Neither did they pursue the practice of having more than two soloists. In his F major Concerto (the numbering of which differs from that given in Grove: H410, Wq46) CPE accepts the formal plan of the ritornello but not the concept of its unity of thematic mood; he introduces a diversity that is more like that of the exposition in sonata form—though the resemblance ends there, and the element of contrast is maintained in the 'solo' episodes, not derived from the ritornello material.

Reinhard Goebel and members of the Musica Antiqua Köln give an almost effortless and very listenable performance of Heinrich Ignatz Franz von Biber's Mystery Sonatas here. This is no mean feat, in that each of these sonatas save the first, and the final Passacaglia, is in a different and weird -scordatura- tuning.

Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Koln s recordings of J. S. Bach are classics of the Early Music movement. Equally revelatory is their championing of the music of the Bach family stretching from the mid-17th to the late 18th century: a treasure trove of vocal and instrumental works. Here they are complete in a single box for the first time, with Magdalena Kozená a stunning soloist.

Telemann was known to play a variety of wind instruments and composed numerous inspired compositions for seemingly every combination of them. Arguably the most intriguing selection here is the Concerto for two Chalumeaux - a rarely heard distant relative of the clarinet. Every work throughout this generous program is melodically rich and expertly-crafted (par for the course with Telemann) and the Musica Antiqua Koln deliver knowing animated original instrument performances guaranteed to delight all Baroque fans. Great sound too!

This album is full of surprises, not all of them associated with its musical contents. Advance PR materials stated that its contents were recorded originally for televised broadcast in 2004, then forgotten, and only just rediscovered. A final recording by the celebrated Musica Antiqua Köln, forgotten by its The music is a bit of a surprise as well, if not the result of an “original genius” that Goebel likens to C. P. E. Bach. Johann Friedrich Meister (1638–97) seems by all accounts to have been something of a rebel, getting himself imprisoned the year after his appointment as music director of the Hofkapelle of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht I of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

This new issue by Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln is one of their strongest to date. The programme is imaginative, the content varied and the playing of a very high order. At its heart lie Telemann’s three originally conceived and skilfully crafted concertos for four unaccompanied violins. Two of them featured in one of Goebel’s earliest recordings for DG Archiv but the new version surpasses even the elevated standards set by the other. Hard on the heels of a recent performance by the Berlin Academy of Ancient Music (Harmonia Mundi) comes another reading of Telemann’s Violin Concerto Die Relinge (The Frogs). Heavily dependent upon onomatopoeia, its humour wears a bit thin after a time; but the piece is tautly and rather untypically constructed and, in a performance of such vitality and mischievous humour as this, will probably find a good many takers.

Georg Philipp Telemann's string concertos position themselves somewhere between the polyphonic complexity of the Bach orchestral sinfonias, the urbanity of Handel's concerti grossi, and Vivaldi's innumerable and endlessly delightful works of this type. But his approach always remained the most international as well as the most local. Two of these concertos, for example, exemplify the "Polish" style appropriate for the Electors of Saxony (Telemann's employers, who were also kings of Poland), with their folky rhythms and groaning bass parts.

Here is a case of expectations richly rewarded. Telemann's flute quartets are vibrant and tuneful, at times making great demands on the soloists. The Musica Antiqua Koln are in all ways up to the challenge, delivering a musical bouquet that is at various turns elegant, soothing, and exciting.

Nach der atemberaubenden Einspielung der Concerti grossi nun ein Blick in das umfassende geistliche Schaffen Johann David Heinichens, jenes am Dresdner Hof des kunstsinnigen August des Starken tätigen Kompositeurs, um dessen Stelle sich 1733, vier Jahre nach Heinichens Tod, ein gewisser J. S. Bach aus Leipzig — vergeblich — bewarb.

1998 is een bijzonder jaar voor Reinhard Goebel en zijn Musica Antiqua Koln. Dit jaar gedenken zij niet alleen dat Reinhard Goebel de groep 25 jaar geleden oprichtte, maar ook dat zij 20 jaar geleden hun samenwerking begonnen met Archiv Produktion. Hun nieuwste cd "Sonata pro tabula" bevat tafelmuziek om bij te watertanden. Samen met het Flanders Recorder Quartet speelt Musica Antiqua Koln werken van Valentini, Schmelzer en Pezel, steeds afgewisseld met een aantal "A due" voor twee trompetten van Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.

Heinichen's Dresden Concertos created quite a stir when they were first released a couple of years ago, and for good reason. This is vital, colorful music scored for a large and varied ensemble. Like most composers of his day, Heinichen spent the majority of his compositional talent in the service of vocal music, for either the opera house or church. These pieces represent his only surviving set of concertos, and anyone who enjoys, for example, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos or the orchestral works of Zelenka will certainly want to hear these as well. These performances are simply the last word in style and virtuosity.

“…The precision of ensemble, the crisp articulation and the clarity of texture which Goebel achieves, not perhaps without considerable effort, are admirable features of the Archiv Produktion set and, for sheer efficiency and dependability in such matters, these artists have few rivals…Telemann published his Musique de table in Hamburg in 1733. Each of its three parts or ''Productions'', as he called them, is laid out identically, embracing the principal orchestral and instrumental forms of the late-baroque: French overture and dance suite, quartet, concerto, trio solo sonata and a little orchestral coda, so to speak, which Telemann simply and practically called ''Conclusion''.

« On retrouve…le même élan, cette beauté sonore, cette profonde musicalité »… »la musique émouvante, déchirante jusqu’au dernier soupir. Le théâtre n’est pas loin, mais le drame se dessine à l’opposé de tout excès, de toute solllicitation dramatique ou émotive. Nigel Rogers chante…avec un sens de la prosodie, une clarté d’élocution et une sobriété de la ligne musicale ». –Opéra International