Frieder Bernius

Mozart greatly admired the music of Jommelli. Here is the latter’s marvellous version of the Dido and Aeneas story. Dorothea Röschmann is flexible and firm in the title role, and Martina Borst as Aeneas has a warm tone. The orchestra is robust and vivid, especially in the astonishing final scene which was famous in its day. We can only hope for more from this enterprising Stuttgart group.

The Psalms of David were Schütz' first published collection 1619 after becoming the Choirmaster of the Duke of Saxony. Composed over a number of years, they blend Venetian inspired polychorality with the German of Luther's Bible translation. Throughout, particular attention is evident in the wordsetting, the meaning of the text as exemplified by the music was a driving force for Schütz throughout his creative life. Texts employed are mainly psalms or psalmselections, with a few other biblical excerpts.

A selection of works which shows the courage to try the unusual: Ligeti’s Lux aeterna and Boyd’s As I crossed a bridge of dreams share a flowing of harmonic fields into one another as if in slow motion. On the other hand, Ligeti’s use of the technique of dividing an apparently endless flow of sound, with its related intervallic structures, into comprehensible periods, shows similarities to Scarlattis method of employing motives whose intervallic structure are interrelated. For Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen Gottwald transferred Ligeti’s technique of vocal writing to his arrangement of the Mahler Lied.

Johann Wenzeslaus Kalliwoda, born in Bohemia, was one of the few composers whose symphonies got traction in Germany in the years after Beethoven's death. His Symphony No. 1 in F sharp minor has received occasional performances down through the years, and conductors and scholars have begun to unearth his other six symphonic works. Even Schubert wondered what there was left to accomplish in the symphonic genre after Beethoven. He eventually figured it out, and Kalliwoda, in his Symphony No. 5 in B minor, Op. 106, seems to be thinking along some of the same lines as Schubert in his Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the "Unfinished."

Bach's Mass in B minor is one of his greatest and most ambitious works of all. She has occupied the composer for more than two decades, from the Sanctus (1724) to the Missa from 1733 to the supplementary Ordinarium theorems of the last years of life. Thus, the work in its rich variety of arias, duets and concertante and fugal choirs forms an essence of his profound skills and personal style. The "greatest musical work of all time and people" (as enthusiastic as the first editor Hans Georg Nägeli 1818) and one of the most demanding choral-symphonic works of all lies in a high-profile, based on principles of historical performance practice recording with Frieder Bernius, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir and the Baroque orchestra Stuttgart before.

Between 1820 and 1847, Felix Mendelssohn composed a total of 38 songs for a cappella male voices. Many of these were written for his own use at home or in the company of friends. He also liked to personally gift or dedicate these songs to others. This recording by the male voices of the SWR Vokalensemble under conductor Frieder Bernius affords the opportunity to enjoy these wonderful compositions that are among the least explored parts of Mendelssohn’s vast oeuvre.

The Easter Oratorio of J.S. Bach has been paired here with one of the most vibrant compositions by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel: This recording includes the first, sacred part of C.P. E. Bach’s Dankhymne der Freundschaft (1785), a work which was forgotten for more than two hundred years. Once again Frieder Bernius gives these two works a stellar performance.

For the 500th anniversary of the Reformation a collection of all 35 hymns by Luther is being released on a double CD for the first time. The Lutheran hymns in choral settings and chorale cantatas from the 16th century to the present day (including works by Praetorius, Scheidt, Bach, Mendelssohn, Jennefelt, and Schwemmer) are performed by the Kammerchor Stuttgart under the direction of Frieder Bernius and the Athesinus Consort Berlin conducted by Klaus-Martin Bresgott. The choral settings are complemented by chorale arrangements for organ. Extensive liner notes with meditations on selected hymns by Margot Käßmann, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Markus Meckel, Judith Zander, Uwe Kolbe, and others complete the recordings.