Christine Schäfer, Reinhard Goebel, Musica Antiqua Köln

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.

Having received all major recording industry prizes of the world many times, as well as the Siemens Special Prize, the Buxtehude Prize of the City of Lübeck and the Special Prize of North-Rhine Westphalia, Goebel has still remained the leading outsider in the area of “Early Music” – always looking for new acoustic worlds, shocking new ways of interpreting standard repertoire and uncomfortable programs far off the beaten track of “top-40 classic programming”. Reinhard Goebel began studying violin at the age of 12. He became interested exclusively in “Early Music” at a young age, but was forced to proceed through a classic- modern program of study by the German conservatory system.