South Tyrolean

Violinists will sometimes delay recording Johann Sebastian Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin until they feel they have mastered the music and even let it become second nature to them. Not so Thomas Zehetmair, who, with guidance from his mentor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, first recorded the Sei Solo in 1982 for Teldec, then waited almost four decades before revisiting them for ECM New Series. This time span has permitted Zehetmair sufficient space to reevaluate Bach's masterpiece and to present the music with a mature appreciation of its contrapuntal intricacy and expressive depth.

Leonhard Lechner (ca 1553-1606) was a Catholic South Tyrolean who converted to Protestantism at the age of 18 and is described as an erudite theologian. He is considered the most important mediator of Orlando di Lasso's musical style for Protestant church music. It is not only in his motet passion of 1593 that he shows a special talent for combining the contrapuntal movement of the German tradition with the explicit interpretation of words in the Italian style. Henning Wiegrabe and the Capricornus Ensemble Stuttgart underline this impressively in their colorful performance.