Vox Cantoris

Aliénor was born in England in 1275, the daughter of Beatrix of England and John II, Duke of Brittany. She entered the monastery of Amesbury in 1283 at the age of eight and became abbess of Fontevraud Abbey in 1304, where she died in 1342.

The Suspended Harp of Babel features revelatory performances of the choral music of Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek (1889-1962). Kreek’s pieces, incorporating graceful settings of psalms and folk hymns, are juxtaposed here with instrumental fantasias and interludes created for this recording by Marco Ambrosini.

With the Thirty Years War raging around them, Lutherans considered death to be the true fulfillment of their earthly life. Prince Heinrich von Reuss organised all the details of his funeral in advance, from the music that would be sung - to be composed and then performed by Heinrich Schütz during the funeral ceremony - to the coffin itself. Our programme includes not only the renowned Musicalische Exequien but also other funeral motets by Schütz, one of which was composed on the death of his friend Johann Hermann Schein.

The year ends in fine style with a programme of cantatas by J.S. Bach performed by Vox Luminis. The Belgian group directed by the bass Lionel Meunier is now acknowledged as belonging among the world’s elite vocal ensembles, especially for its interpretations of German Baroque sacred music.

After several recordings on Ricercar and a first disc on Alpha, Actus Tragicus, containing early Bach cantatas, ‘of staggering profundity, purity and beauty’ (ffff Télérama), Lionel Meunier and his ensemble Vox Luminis devote this new project to two showpieces by Handel and Bach.

Music of Hildegard von Bingen and new compositions by Petter Udland Johansen, performed by Arianna Savall and her Ensemble Hirundo Maris. The new album of Arianna Savall, Petter Udland Johansen and their Ensemble Hirundo Maris is a new and outstanding approach to the music of Hildegard of Bingen. it is entirely devoted to the beauty, emotion and spiritual depth of the music of this great composer, philosopher and mystic and conveys the magic of her music in a truly affecting manner.

With his carefully crafted concept album entitled Vox Humana cellist Isang Enders presents a study in sound and the portrayal of a musical network of contacts. For his third release on the Berlin Classics label he has painstakingly chosen French works from four centuries and approached each of them in a very individual manner, setting himself and his audience the challenge of not simply listening, but of perceiving.

Having recorded the complete motets composed by the ancestors of Johann Sebastian Bach (RIC 347), Vox Luminis now tackles their complete spiritual concerts and sacred cantatas, in which the instruments – particularly the strings – play a highly important role. In the cantata for the Feast of St Michael the Archangel by Johann Christoph Bach, trumpets and drums are enlisted to evoke the battle of the archangels in heaven. To round off this programme, Vox Luminis presents the cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden by Johann Sebastian Bach, in its original version dating from his Arnstadt period, containing copious elements linking it to the music of his forebears.

The soprano Laura Catrani studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Her operatic début took place in 2006 at the Rossini in Wildbad festival with Balducciʼs I gelosi, and in 2007 she took a principal rôle in the first modern concert performance of Mercadanteʼs Don Chisciotte.

Gerade mal 36 Jahre alt wurde Henry Purcell, doch in diesem kurzen Leben erwies er sich als enorm produktiv. 860 Kompositionen führt das vom amerikanischen Musikwissenschaftler Frank B. Zimmerman angelegte Purcell-Verzeichnis. Neben Kammer- und Kirchenmusik sowie immerhin 60 Fest- und Prunk-Musiken komponierte Purcell vor allem für die Bühne. Mit Dido and Aeneas entstand seine einzige klassische Oper. Auf dem Gebiet der von ihm geprägten Form der Semi-Opera , in der Schauspiel und Musik miteinander verknüpft wurden, hinterließ er hingegen Meisterwerke wie King Arthur und The Fairy Queen .