Christine Schäfer's bright, silvery soprano is a perfect vehicle for these solo cantatas. The adventurous Musica Antiqua Köln supports her in lively readings, full of spirit and animation. Schäfer sails through the technical demands with ease, but she also brings a welcome warmth and sensitivity to the texts. Some of the movements are taken at a clip that may surprise, but the performers bring it off with aplomb. The familiar Cantata No. 51 actually isn't a wedding cantata, but its joyous spirit fits the mood, so it's welcome all the same, especially in a performance of such agility and precision.

As director of Musica Antiqua Koln, Reinhard Goebel was constantly on the lookout for musical treasures from the Baroque. In Dresden and Leipzig after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Goebel secured access to original manuscripts which allowed him and his Musica Antiqua Koln to record some of the most insightful Bach albums in DG's history. This 13CD box presents Goebel's finest J.S. Bach recordings for DG including The Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites and Chamber Works.

Voici la bande originale du film de Gérard Corbiau, réalisateur notamment du film Farinelli. On ne peut qu'admirer le soin avec lequel le cinéaste a mis en lumière les conflits et l'admiration réciproque entre les deux astres de Versailles : Louis XIV et Jean-Baptiste Lully. La musique est pétillante d'intelligence, de couleurs, de rebondissements, comme les intrigues de la première cour du monde. Sous la baguette explosive de Reinhard Göbel, le Musica Antiqua Köln révèle les contrastes les plus violents. C'est un bain de jouvence qui nous fait entrer dans un univers de théâtre aussi fascinant… Que dangereux !

'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.

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.

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. The Overture (Suite) in D for viola da gamba and strings is more substantial and more rewarding. Soloist Jaap ter Linden is an eloquent player who finds more to say about the music than many of his rivals have done. Goebel’s programme is framed by two pieces which serve to underline Telemann’s pioneering and forward-looking musical personality. Both look towards the style galant, the Symphony in D being a product of the composer’s very last years.

–Nicholas Anderson

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.

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.

Having all of these works collected together is a real treasure. It is one of the most beautiful collections. 5 cd's of all of Bach's chamber music, exquisitely performed by the outstanding soloists of Musica Antiqua Koln. Reinhard Goebel's performance of the violin works is simply perfect. Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord have been in the shadows for too long, they deserve to be heard and this performance proves it. They are a delightful partnership between violin and harpsichord. The tempos are fairly brisk but the performance is so clearly articulated that the result is energetic and very rewarding.

“…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''. Much of his finest music is contained in this fulsome anthology and it may be found above all, perhaps, in the quartets and concertos…Goebel's ensemble are splendid in these pieces, of that there is no question… This is, perhaps, especially so in the Concerto in E flat for two horns or ''Trombe selvatiche'' as Telemann called them. Goebel's rhythms are springy, his horns resonant and his sonorities ravishing to the senses…To sum up… outstandingly interesting releases… Recorded sound is excellent…”

– Nicholas Anderson

Brilliant Classics' Telemann Edition is a cube-shaped, flip-top box set of 29 CDs, drawn from the label's extensive back list. Georg Philipp Telemann was a major figure of the Baroque era and one of the most prolific composers of that or any age; his massive output encompassed Tafelmusik (music for the table), concertos, orchestral suites, chamber works, keyboard pieces, oratorios, operas, and cantatas. This collection is comprehensive in its coverage, providing an in-depth appreciation of Telemann's highly varied and innovative work, and the performances by a long roster of European musicians show a fine sense for period practices. To fit so many discs into this package, they are protected by thin cardboard sleeves, and the thin booklet that accompanies them gives a brief explanation of Telemann's career and reputation over the succeeding centuries. However, the sound quality is only slightly variable and quite pleasant throughout, and the package as a whole is likely to satisfy any Telemann fan.