Bearing witness to a miraculously preserved and somewhat mysterious musical world, this precious recording reveals a repertory at once sober and refined, moving and poetic, which invites us to open the gates of those convents that, in the midseventeenth century, attracted from Paris and throughout the kingdom a public enthralled by their angelic voices, animated by a single deep and authentic faith which further increased the powerful appeal and the mystery of their singing.

This 2012 recording of the most influential and wide spread oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach features the Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer, a visionary in his field, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The double choir is the essential musical aspect on which Iván Fischer’s interpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is based. Only by consistently seizing on that duality will all the complementary layers stand out as they should. He describes this essential fundamental aspect as follows: “You can’t do the St. Matthew in an unreligious way. The only approach is from a deep, universally religious feeling.

David Bates leads La Nuova Musica in 'Sacrifices', a programme of intensely dramatic oratorios from the mid Baroque. Three poignant tales of denail and sacrifice: St Peter's denial of Christ; Abraham's [narrowly averted] sacrifice of his son Isaac; and the Old Testament story of Jepthe, the hero commander who, before leading the Israelites into battle against the Ammonites, vows to God that if he is victorious, he will sacrifice the first living thing he meets upon his return.
Unfortunately it is his darling daughter, who dances out to greet him with cymbals and flutes. Jepthe must honour his vow…

Scheins 1623 in Leipzig gedruckte Sammlung Israelsbrünnlein ist eine kompositorische Gipfelleistung, nicht nur innerhalb des Schaffens des seit 1616 in Leipzig als Thomaskantor wirkenden Komponisten, sondern darüber hinaus auch der deutschen Musik der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Unter den 26 "auf Italian-Madrigalische Manir" geschriebenen Motetten finden sich 23 auf alttestamentarische Texte (Psalmen, die Mose-Bücher, das Hohelied und andere Bücher des Alten Testaments) komponierte, was der Sammlung den Namen gab. Hans-Christoph Rademann und der Dresdner Kammerchor legen hier eine Referenzeinspielung der kompletten Sammlung vor.

The Concerto Copenhagen is Scandinavia’s most renowned Baroque ensemble and one of the most innovative such formations worldwide. Its trademarks are its unusual program combinations featuring Scandinavian rarities and famous Baroque masterpieces. This world-class orchestra now turns to Handel’s great Brockes-Passion in a CD recording based on the Halle edition of this composer’s works. The Passion text published by the well-to-do Hamburg resident Barthold Heinrich Brockes was a literary bestseller during the early eighteenth century.

CPO’s rediscovery of Church Music from Hamburg (1600-1800) continues with a concert, broadcast live on Deutschlandradio Kultur, featuring rediscovered works by Reinhard Keiser. Only three oratorios by Reinhard Keiser exist in full. Many shorter pieces, fragments, and works of uncertain authorship still lie unpublished in archives and libraries.

Felix Mendelssohn's celebrated 1829 revival of the St. Matthew Passion lives on in legend as the starting point of the rediscovery of Bach's music. Mendelssohn performed the work again in 1841 in Bach's own church in Leipzig; the score and performing parts from that occasion have survived, so it's possible to revive Mendelssohn's revival fairly accurately. Conductor Christoph Spering, Chorus Musicus, and Das Neue Orchester (playing 19th-century period instruments) have done just that–with fascinating results.

Couperin’s Trois Leçons de Ténèbres are amongst the small amount of the composer’s sacred music that was published during his lifetime. They are intensely personal, depicting the prophet Jeremiah’s bitter anguish in settings that are quite unique. Also included here are Couperin’s joyful motets Laetentur caeli and Venite, exsultemus Domino, and a remarkable Magnificat.

Vocal music is a reflection of its time, crossing the centuries to reveal emotion, particularly its religious side in which it forms an obvious prayer. Thus, on this recording which begins with Alfonso X. El Sabio all the way to Mozart and Haydn, the Vox Aeterna (Eternal voice) speaks to us, moves us, making itself the intermediary of our own feelings.

This is a set of six previously-released CDs of mostly sacred music by Josquin and his contemporaries. Here you will also find music thought to be by Josquin and Johannes Martini, Eneas Dupré, Elzéar Genet Carpentras, and music (mis)attributed to them in various ways. It’s a splendid set – full of vigour and sophisticated music-making - and can be safely recommended.

The Freiburger Barockorchester, directed from Gottfried von der Goltz’s violin, released a brand new recording of Telemann’s rare Passion, entitled Seliges Erwägen (Contemplative Meditations). More than just setting to music the story of the passion of Christ, such as Bach did, we hear in this score a succession of meditations. If we know little about its genesis, it is acknowledged that the success of this work was considerable, even more than that of his Passion after Brockes or his oratorio The Death of Jesus. The clear diction and the transparency of the voices in the chorals perfectly convey the dramatic expression, typical of these sacred works.

The chant and polyphony on this record is easier to approach than that on the Patriarchate Choir's Panikhida disc (OPS 30-97). The znamenny chant is "harmonized" in a way that shows clear Western influence: The parts often move in parallel thirds; six-four chords are common; the melodies seem to move toward a tonic. Fortunately, distinctive Russian elements remain. The basic melodies are typical of znamenny chant; there are plenty of passing-tone dissonances; and the most usual cadence is 1-4-5 (e.g., d-g-a), which gives a pleasing shimmer to the ending of each chant. The performance by Anatoly Grindenko and his singers is entirely persuasive. This is yet another valuable addition to the discography of this important, little-known repertory.

Johann Schein undeservedly remains in obscurity because he had the misfortune to precede Johann Sebastian Bach as cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. His fascinating collection of "sacred madrigals" employs techniques of avant-garde Italian secular music to set German language versions of Old Testament texts. Philippe Herreweghe's ensemble of singers and instrumentalists prove consummate advocates for this worthy, sometimes astonishing music.

The opening with the opening choir "Kommt, ihr Töchter" immediately sets the tone; not a quick-played waltz, but imposing and wide-set, like the start of a great human drama. Richter exceeds 11 minutes with this tempo. Only the version by Otto Klemperer is even slower. But unlike Klemperer, here in the rest of the MP we are not dealing with a somewhat stately approach, but with a sharply profiled and dramatic one!

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion is widely recognised as one of the greatest masterpieces in Western sacred music. With its double orchestra and chorus this is a work of enormous proportions in every sense, and Bach was extremely resourceful in treading a fine line between creating the almost operatic spectacle valued by the secular authorities in Leipzig, and the elevated religious atmosphere sought by the clergy. This inspired mix of moving drama and theological discourse led Leonard Bernstein to declare that ‘there is nothing like it in all of music’.