Konrad Kyeser

Membra Jesu Nostri (The Limbs of our Lord Jesus) is the single largest and most compelling of the 110 or so sacred vocal works left us by Dutch-German master Dietrich Buxtehude. Buxtehude is better known for his organ music and is rightfully acknowledged as a formative influence on Johann Sebastian Bach. However, Buxtehude's vocal output is slightly larger than that for organ, and he was a key player in the refinement of the German sacred concerto into what we now call the sacred cantata, which he and his wife inherited from its creator and his predecessor, Franz Tunder, in the town of Lübeck. In the years following Buxtehude's death in 1707, German composers of all kinds were gainfully employed writing cantatas in the thousands, Georg Philipp Telemann produced nearly 2,000 of them on his own.

Much has been said and written about Handel and Metastasio, and the composer’s supposed lack of interest in the librettos of the famous Roman poet. The fact is that Handel generally used adaptations of much older librettos which perhaps represented a bigger space of liberty for its work and conception of drama. Though Handel set to music only three librettos by Metastasio (Siroe, Poro and Ezio), we can hardly doubt he knew and recognised the qualities of their dramaturgy. Two of the three were successful and all of them gave him opportunity to write beautiful music.

Recorded live at the Saarbrücken State Theatre in 2008, this spectacular new production of Handel's Agrippina has received critical recognition, with reviewer Frank Herkommer of opernnetz.de commenting: "Producer Peter Lund with his celebrated production of Agrippina demonstrates his love with detail, focused on directing the characters, with exuberant fantasy and creativity the Berlin director sparks brilliant Handel fireworks! He succeeds in unleashing an effervescent joy of playing, which puts an irresistible spell on the viewer". Featuring a cast of renowned baroque specialists under the direction of Konrad Junghänel, one of the leading conductors in the array of early music.

Der Dirigent und Lautenist Konrad Junghändel ist durch seine Zusammenarbeit mit mit Ensembles wie Les Arts Florissants, La Petite Bande, Musica Antiqua Köln bekannt geworden. Die fortgesetzte Beschäftigung mit der vokalen Musik des Barock führte Junghänel 1987 zur Gründung des Vokalensembles Cantus Cölln, das sich innerhalb kürzester Zeit zu einem der führenden Ensembles entwickelte. Diese limitierte Edition umfasst 10 Alben mit herausragenden Aufnahmen Junghänels für das Label DHM, 6 davon als Lautenist, 4 mit Cantus Cölln.

This recording is of the rarely performed late fourth version of the St. John Passion. Cantus Cölln performs the entire work as a double vocal quartet, producing vocal brilliance and immaculate solo sections. The ensemble is one of the most renowned vocal groups for Renaissance and Baroque music.

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.

August 27th marks the 500th anniversary of Josquin’s passing, an outstanding musical personality celebrated throughout the entire Western world for his immeasurable genius. If Josquin excelled in all genres, it is maybe in the free form of the motet that he gave the best of his art, for instance the beautiful Stabat Mater. This album by the Capella Antiqua München, newly digitized and remastered in high resolution, reveals all the splendor of these pages, among the most beautiful of sacred music’s history.

This is a reissue of a disc originally released in the 1990s, performed on period instruments. The difference in pitch with modern instrument recordings is notable and gives a darker feeling to the sound than the brightness one has become accustomed to with the modern flute. In this recording, Konrad Hünteler uses an instrument made by Jacob Denner, which was approximately ten years old when these works were composed. The recording is made using only the natural acoustics of the space with no added technological trickery, and as such, it serves to provide an interesting example of what this music may have sounded like at the time Vivaldi composed it.

Bei Dabringhaus und Grimm kamen jetzt auch die Flötenquartette von Mozart heraus, und zwar in einer Aufnahme, die der historischen Aufführungspraxis folgt. Konrad Hünteler hat sich mit dem Geiger Rainer Kußmaul, dem Bratschisten Jürgen Kußmaul und dem Cellisten Roel Dieltiens zusammengesetzt, und da spitzt man die Ohren. Denn erst vor einigen Wochen hat Emanuel Pahud, der Soloflötist der Berliner Philharmoniker, eben diese Quartette in einer phänomenalen Neueinspielung vorgelegt. Diesmal sitzt also sein einstiger Konzertmeister Rainer Kußmaul sozusagen im anderen Boot, und tatsächlich wird diese Aufnahme in ganz anderer Weise von der Violine geprägt als die Pahud-CD.

The 17th-century Austrian composer Heinrich Biber is remembered today for his extraordinary solo violin music–collections such as the Mystery Sonatas. He wrote a number of large-scale instrumental works and choral pieces as well, but their reputation is not as high. They include a lot of grand gestures for brass, but they tend to be harmonically static and often seem long-winded. So Konrad Junghänel and his superb musicians have really achieved something by making the works on this disc sound so appealing.