Musically, Marianna Martines was always in good company. She took keyboard lessons from Haydn. Metastasio — opera librettist and Poet Laureate of the Austrian Empire — was a close family friend. She played four-hand piano sonatas with Mozart. In her lifetime, she was highly regarded as a pianist, a singer, and a composer. This release […]
choral music
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Georg Philipp Telemann Sings of Love
This release is all about love. Rest assured, these three secular cantatas are but a fraction of those Telemann wrote. The program is well-planned. The three cantatas come from three different sources. They were written for different occasions and presented different views of love. Julia Kirchner and Georg Poplutz each perform a solo cantata, […]
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Rheinberger’s Der Stern von Bethlehem shines in reissue
Why isn’t “Der Stern von Bethlehem” a holiday staple, like that Handel joint? I have a theory. Joseph Rheinberger composed his cantata in 1890. During his lifetime it was one of his most-performed choral works. After his death in 1901, though, it lapsed into obscurity. Rheinberger’s style was influenced by the German greats: Brahms, Mendelssohn, […]
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Kölner Akademie continues excellent Telemann Christmas series
This volume features two Advent and two Christmas cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann. The difference between these liturgical seasons has blurred over time. But in the 1700s there was a clear difference. Advent was the season anticipated the birth of Christ — hopeful, but waiting. Christmas marked the arrival of Christ, and the twelve days […]
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Christoph Graupner Bassoon Cantatas – more than making do
When a composer is as prolific as Christoph Graupner, there are many ways to create a musical program. An album of bassoon cantatas may seem obscure. But with over 1,400 Graupner cantatas to choose from, there were plenty of choices. A virtuoso bassoonist, Johann Christian Klotsch.. was hired for the Darmstadt court in 1736. Graupner […]
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Michael Praetorius Christmas music given exceptional performances
Quick. Name a Michael Praetorius Christmas carol. OK, now name another besides “Lo, How a Rose Er Blooming.” There are several — as this release shows. Praetorius was a major contributor of music to the early Lutheran church. He published nine volumes of Musae Sioniae, collections of Lutheran chorales. And amongst this music were chorales […]
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Georg Caspar Schürmann – a rediscovered master
This is the fifth release in CPO’s “Music from Wolfenbüttel Castle” series. It features three cantatas by Georg Caspar Schürmann. Schürmann served the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel for 54 years. As court composer, he set a musical standard many aspired to. The court at Wolfenbüttel Castle had a long tradition of musical excellence. Michael Praetorius had […]
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Telemann “Musicalisches Lob Gottes” leavened with Viol Fantasies
For this release, Simone Eckert takes a stripped-down approach to Telemann. Granted, Telemann’s sacred music sounds glorious with a large chorus and supporting orchestra. But the reality was different. Most German courts had modest resources, with only a few singers and a handful of instruments. The cantatas recorded here could all be considered chamber works […]
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Les Escapades revive Georg Christoph Strattner sacred music
Georg Christoph Strattner is best remembered today for some of his hymn tunes. But in the late 1690s, he was a well-respected composer of many forms of sacred music. Strattner spent most of his professional life at the court chapel at Weimar. Like Heinrich Schutz, who was of the previous generation, Strattner blended the ideals […]