The music here was written for performance during Holy Week at the splendid Catholic court of Dresden in 1722. The example of Dresden stirred Johann Sebastian Bach to some of his most Italianate flights of opera-like music, and the composer of the Holy Week responsories heard here, the Bohemian-born Jan Dismas Zelenka (whom Bach himself admired), had an experimental, progressive spirit in much of his music. All the more of a surprise, then, to find that these pieces are written in an almost antique style. Each of the three Matins services is divided into three Nocturns, each of which is provided with three pairs of readings or lessons (given in chant) and three responsories, polyphonically set for a small choir (the two-singers-to-a-part forces heard here were apparently typical), with orchestral strings mostly doubling the vocal lines.

This is an excellent and varied selection of composers from the very well known like Palestrina, Monteverdi, Bach and Vivaldi, through the less famous but familiar like Frescobaldi, Sainte-Colombe and Zelenka, to the downright obscure. It is all delightful: the musicians are uniformly excellent, and include such great names as Gustav Leonhardt, Cantus Colln, Christopher Hogwood and so on. They give fine performances both of the familiar works and of the less familiar ones. Obviously there will be discs you like more than others and you may already have favourite versions of some works, but these discs are never less than very good and are often outstanding.

Jan Dismas Zelenka, court composer of August Elector of Saxony in Dresden, is steadily regaining his deserved reputation.In thi snew recording for Pan Classics, the accomplished young British countertenor Alex Potter succeeds in displaying a wide emotional range in selected works for alto solo: he dazzles with astounding virtuosity in the motet 'Barbara, dira effera' and soars in tender arcs of tension in his performance of the 'Christe eleison' from a late unfinished mass.

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) Officium defunctorum ZWV 47 – Requiem in D ZWV 46 (Music for the funeral rites of Augustus the Strong) Jan Dismas Zelenka’s music for the funeral rites of Augustus the Strong – Officium defunctorum ZWV 47 (Invitatorium, Nocturno I-III) and Requiem ZWV 46 – reveals the most impressive face of the Baroque theatre of death. The man in the chief role of this spectacle follows the appeal in the 95th psalm of the introductory antiphon of the invitatorium “the King, in whom everything lives, let us worship Him”, and bows his head before God and the majesty of death.

The debut album from countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński – born in Warsaw, trained at New York’s Juilliard School, and 2016 winner of the Metropolitan Opera's prestigious National Council Auditions – Anima sacra features what are believed to be world premiere recordings of eight Baroque arias, notably by composers of the Neapolitan school. Orliński is partnered by Il pomo d’oro conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.

An innovative Baroque composer whose reputation was steadily on the rise during the anything-goes years of the waning twentieth century, Jan Dismas Zelenka was born in Lounovice, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). He was a court musician in Dresden for most of his career, and both J.S. Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann knew and admired his music. Except for brief periods of travel, during which he refined his craft (he took lessons from Fux and Lotti even after his own technique had been perfected), he served as a double bass player in the court orchestra and later aided the ailing court music director Heinichen in his duties.

During the summer of 1989, oboists Alfredo Bernardini and Paolo Grazzi together with bassoonist Alberto Grazzi founded Zefiro, a versatile ensemble specialized in 18th century music predominantly featuring wind instruments. Zefiro soon made a name for itself worldwide, and to celebrate its thirty years of activity Arcana is releasing an elegant 10-CD set of their complete recordings of baroque music. From the ensemble’s first disc (Sonatas by Zelenka - Grand Prix du Disque), the compilation alternates recordings of repertoire composers and pieces that have become absolute points of reference, such as the Vivaldi Bassoon Concertos, Handel’s Fireworks (Diapason d’or de l’année 2009) or the Bach Overtures (judged by Gramaphone to be one of the 50 best Bach recordings of all time).

In an age of artistic conformity, Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) had a refreshingly individual voice. In his own time he was described as 'a reserved, bigoted Catholic, but also a respectable, quiet, unassuming man, deserving of the greatest respect'. His music earned Bach's respect for its serious contrapuntal procedures; today's listeners, though, are more immediately charmed by Zelenka's quirky turns of phrase and flashes of original genius. There are plenty of these in the Passion oratorio Gesù al Calvario (1735), one of the composer's three late oratorios.

Jednou z dominant letošního edičního plánu Supraphonu je světová premiéra historicky tak nepřehlédnutelného díla, jakým je korunovační opera Sub olea pacis největšího českého barokního skladatele Jana Dismase Zelenky (1679-1745). K velkolepé pražské korunovaci habsburského panovníka Karla VI. českým králem roku 1723 se připojili i pražští jezuité, když si u nejslavnějšího žijícího českého skladatele a navíc svého odchovance objednali velkolepou hudební fresku. Skladatel jejich přání s radostí vyhověl a dokonce své dílo přijel do Prahy nastudovat, a můžeme dnes říci, že se mu jeho tvůrčí pokus bezezbytku vyvedl. Více než hodinu a půl trvající skladba je jedním z nejlepších plodů barokní estetiky a navíc - po formální stránce - jednou ze čtyř úplně dochovaných tzv. školských her.

Zelenka was the most important Bohemian composer before Gluck. He wrote no operas and few instrumental works, but a great body of sacred music for the Catholic court at Dresden plus a few choice secular works. His music is characterized by passus duriusculus – chromatic descent. Another distinguishing characteristic is slow triplets – not infrequently used by Zelenka, though rarely heard in the works of better known late baroque composers.

Widely regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of Bach's music today, Masaaki Suzuki has made his name both as the artistic director of the Bach Collegium Japan and as a performer on the harpsichord and the organ. Much interest has been focussed on the BCJ/Suzuki series of Bach Cantatas, begun in 1995 and reaching its final stretch with the recent release of Volume 46 (of a projected 55 discs). Hailed by the international music press, this monumental undertaking has acquired a world-wide following. From the very beginning of the collaboration with BIS, however, there have been numerous recording projects beyond the sacred cantatas of Johannes Sebastian, and, indeed, beyond Bach himself. Some of these acclaimed recordings can now be found in a limited edition boxed set, released in connection with the 20th anniversary of Bach Collegium Japan this year.

Zelenka was a Bohemian contemporary of Bach, Handel and Telemann. He held a post as court musician at Dresden from 1710 until his death in 1745; but he travelled, too, and studied in Vienna with Fux, and also in Italy. These six trio sonatas are the only known chamber ensemble pieces by Zelenka, though he contributed a canon with 14 inversions to Telemann's periodical, Der getreue Music-Meister (1728–9). In five of the six sonatas Zelenka specifies two oboes and bassoon with two obbligato basses whilst in the remaining Sonata (No. 3) he requires the first oboe to be replaced by a violin. Zelenka's ''two obbligato basses'' have bewildered editors in the past.

Bach's setting of the Magnificat is one of his most often-recorded vocal works; as a rule, it's paired with one of Bach's lavishly scored festal cantatas. (The Easter Oratorio seems to be a current favorite.) Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan had a different idea: they've paired Bach's Magnificat with roughly contemporary settings by Johann Kuhnau, who was Bach's immediate predecessor in Leipzig, and Jan Dismas Zelenka, who was a composer at the court of Saxony in Dresden. Zelenka is an interesting composer, among the most underrated of the Baroque era. His writing is less dense and intricate than Bach's–at times it looks forward to the simpler, more elegant style of Haydn and C.P.E. Bach. Zelenka knew his counterpoint, however, and was fond of slipping the occasional surprising chord change into his music.

Extraordinarily well-written, prodigiously inventive, and relentlessly exciting–these aren’t terms normally used to describe 18th-century Masses, but then there is nothing “normal” about this late work by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. Simply put, if you aren’t acquainted with Zelenka (or if you’ve experienced a previous aversion to Masses), when you hear this piece-a substantial and powerful conception, from the first note of the Kyrie to the final chord of the Dona nobis pacem-you will wonder why this composer does not enjoy much greater esteem and popularity with performers, particularly alongside J.S. Bach (his contemporary) and Mozart.

These lamentations are beautifully conceived by Zelenka who has a knack for providing wonderful melodies imbued with mysticism and dignity both for chorus and orchestra. Each lamentation is about twenty four minutes long and is split into two parts that contain some crafty, intelligent writing. The three soloists are quite magnificent in their portrayals of Christ's passion with Michael George particularly impressive in all pieces.