Junghanel

The Venetian triumph of a German in exile. After having been considered the "Alpha & Omega Musicorum" in Germany, in 1655 Rosenmüller succeeded in escaping from Saxony where he had been imprisoned for an offence against morality… Shortly afterwards he began a new life in the City of the Doges and went on to become one of the most highly esteemed composers of the day. Dominated by an impressive Dixit Dominus of 621 bars, these Vespers of the Blessed Virgin are in the direct lineage of a Venetian tradition already glorified by Monteverdi and Cavalli.

""En cette ville, on n’avait jamais entendu auparavant son égal en matière de composition et de pratique des instruments les plus variés…"" Nikolaus Bruhns, auquel on doit les plus belles cantates écrites avant Bach, n’a malheureusement pas eu le loisir d’exercer longtemps son art. Il est mort prématurément à l’âge de 32 ans.

Belonging to the same tradition as the celebrated Weihnachtshistorie of his teacher Schütz, these sacred concertos by Rosenmüller date from the period 1645-50, when the young composer was enjoying a rapid rise to eminence in the good city of Leipzig. Long before his enforced exile in Venice for ‘unnatural vice’, a typically Italian suavity is already clearly perceptible all through these remarkable settings of St Luke’s account of the Nativity. Cantus Cölln returns here to its favourite repertoire, eight years after a first release devoted to the same composer’s Vesper music.

Since it's founding in Freiburg in 1958, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi has been one of the most important and ambitious labels for period performances. Over decades, globally-acclaimed recordings were created with outstanding musicians. The limited edition "Deutsche Harmonia Mundi: 100 Great Recordings" contains 100 outstanding DHM recordings with some of the most important and best artists in their field: Nuria Rial, Dorothee Mields, Al Ayre Espanol, Hille Perl, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Skip Sempé, Capriccio Stravagante, La Petite Bande, Gustav Leonhardt, Andrew Lawrence-King, Frieder Bernius, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Thomas Hengelbrock and many others.

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