The Sächsisches Vocalensemble under Matthias Jung has now recorded its second selection of Christmas gems for cpo from one of the most important collections of Lutheran church music, the St. Augustin School in Grimma, Saxony. The focus: festive, magnificent church cantatas (most of them including Christmas trumpet splendor) by composers from Central Germany who were famous musicians and held prominent posts during the years before and after 1700. To name only a few: Johann Schelle, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, and Johann Rosenmüller, as well as composers such as Christian Liebe or Gottfried Vogel who are no longer remembered today but whose music brings wonder to modern listeners.

Handel wrote little for his native tongue, but what he did demonstrates a particular level of contemplative piety while still employing the familiar techniques of Italian opera.
Praise for the beauty of nature and eternal life are the subjects of the sacred poems by his contemporary Barthold Heinrich Brockes which Handel set to music in his 'Nine German Arias'. Each aria celebrates an aspect of nature, from the beauty of a flaming rose to the sweetness of silence, with extraordinary tenderness and sincerity.

Giovanni Alberto Ristori was the son of the Italian actor Tomaso Ristori and came to the Saxon court in Dresden when his father found employment there as the director of the Italian acting company. Giovanni Ristori was regarded as a talented composer, pianist, and organist, and obtained the post of compositeur with the Italian court acting company in 1717. He later received the posts of chamber organist in 1733, church composer in 1746, and the Dresden court’s assistant chapel master under Johann Adolph Hasse in 1750.

Brothers Johann Gottlieb and Carl Heinrich Graun were highly influential and popular figures in 18th Century Berlin. As musicians of the court of Frederick the Great, Carl Heinrich became an important figure at the new Berlin Court Opera, while Johann Gottlieb strongly influenced early classicism in general as a violinist and composer. The name Graun was like a seal of approval in those days for zestful music rich in ideas, displayed perfectly by this collection of concertos. Oboist Xenia Löffler, a member of the Akademie fu"r Alte Musik Berlin, has distinguished herself as a specialist for the North German repertoire of this period.

Nach dem Tod des Dresdner Konzertmeisters Johann Georg Pisendel 1755 ließ Kurfürstin Maria Josepha dessen musikalischen Nachlass aufkaufen. In der Dresdner Hofkirche, in einem großen Schrank mit der Nummer II, wurde der musikalische Schatz aus eigenen und fremden Kompositionen eingelagert und hat sich über die Jahrhunderte hinweg erhalten. Nur ein geringer Teil dieses Repertoires ist allerdings bislang gesichtet, geschweige denn eingespielt worden, so dass die Batzdorfer Hofkapelle mit einigen Weltersteinspielungen aufwarten kann.

For this release, Raimund Nolte and the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle have tackled a repertoire which makes extensive demands on the singer. In the two cantatas Nell’africane selve and Cuopre tal volta il cielo there are breathtaking leaps and bizarre changes of register.

Francesco Feo was one of the greatest Neapolitan composers of the first half of the 18th century. During a career extending from 1713 through 1760, the year before his death, he remained in Naples, where he composed operas, oratorios, cantatas, masses, passions, psalms, and canticles, among other works. His setting of Metastasio’s first opera libretto, Siface, led to commissions from Rome and Turin. His growing fame resulted in commissions from Madrid and Prague; Hasse, resident in Dresden, where Feo’s works were also performed, wanted to entrust Feo with leading the premiere of a serenata he wrote for Naples. The music historian Charles Burney praised his works for their “fire, invention, and force in the melody and expression in the words.”

The conventional wisdom about Venetian Antonio Lotti, composer of the a cappella masterwork "Crucifixus," is that as a card-carrying member of the stil antico he represented a conservative viewpoint akin to that of his later contemporary Leonardo Leo – the fewer instruments the better, the closer to the polyphonic language of Palestrina the better. Moreover, if the "Crucifixus" was the only work of Lotti that someone became acquainted with, then he/she could not be blamed for believing this was so, although he/she might note the distinct Baroque harmonic coloring of the piece as being rather unlike that of Palestrina. Here is a challenge for you – CPO's Antonio Lotti: Vesper Psalms performed by the Sächsisches Vocalensemble and Batzdorfer Hofkapelle under Matthias Jung.

Throughout his life, the oboe played a key role in the music of Georg Friedrich Handel. For no other instrument did he compose such passionate, dramatic and virtuosic music. On this disc, the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle presents a selection of Handel's most beautiful works featuring the oboe. Xenia Löffler, member of the Akademe für Alte Musik Berlin, is the soloist. Vocal parts in the arias with oboe are sung by the young coloratura soprano Marie Friederike Schöder, a shooting star of the baroque music scene.

The Messiah by Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785) was performed by the Sächsisches Vocalensemble and the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle under the conductor Matthias Jung at St Anne’s Church in Dresden on the occasion of the three-hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth on 5 June 2014, and is now being released on CD by cpo. Homilius is regarded as one of the most significant church composers during the transition between the baroque and classical eras.