The “The Last Judgment” by Louis Spohr is one of the most important oratorios of the early 19th c. Accompanied recitatives, short contrapuntal solos and above all great choruses characterize the musical structure. Contrary to other apocalyptic compositions, Spohr focuses on a positive, comforting fundamental attitude of joyful anticipation, making manifest the praise of God and the portrayal of omnipotence, kindness and righteousness. Frieder Bernius and the Stuttgart Chamber Choir together with the Bremen Chamber Philharmonic present the oratorio on this recording.

The tenth volume of the recording of Heinrich Schütz’s complete works presents the Weihnachtshistorie SWV 435 (Christmas Story). + Under the direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann, the Dresdner Kammerchor and the Dresdner Barockorchester perform together with renowned soloists. + The well-known Christmas Story is supplemented with additional pieces for the Christmas season, including the Magnificat SWV 468. + Founder of the Dresdner Kammerchor, Mr. Rademann is one of the most sought-after choral conductors and widely-acknowledged choral specialists in the world.

The 27 concerti of the "Symphoniae sacrae II" by Heinrich Schütz are milestones in the development of the German-language sacred concerto for virtuoso solo singers, instruments and basso continuo: highly sophisticated, complex, moving, musically and historically valuable and compositionally refined, with exceptional concentration of events and wealth of ideas. With this volume 18 of the Schütz Complete Recording, Hans-Christoph Rademann and a number of excellent soloists such as Dorothee Mields and Georg Poplutz have again made a recording of exemplary quality. Hans-Christoph Rademann is one of the most sought after choral conductors and widely-acknowledged specialists of choral sound in the world. His concerts and recordings of music with the Dresdner Kammerchor and Dresdner Barockorchester from the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly the musical treasures of central Germany, are pioneering. He is professor of choral conducting at the Hochschule fur Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden, and Artistic Director of the Erzgebirge Music Festival.

The twelfth part of the acclaimed complete recording of works by Heinrich Sch�tz contains the Symphoniae sacrae III. With this recording, the Dresdner Kammerchor under Hans-Christoph Rademann, supported by well-known soloists, has devoted itself to one of the pinnacles of German early Baroque music. No lesser person than Johannes Brahms presented "Saul, was verfolgst du mich?" to the discerning 19th century Viennese public, causing an outright musical sensation and impressively substantiating the modernity of Heinrich Sch�tz's oeuvre. Even today the Symphoniae sacrae III continue to remain a legacy whose music, with it's abundance of musical ideas, tonal splendor, intricacy and sensuality, has the power to overwhelm, stir up emotions, cause reflection, astonish and comfort.

Heinrich Schütz spent his whole life searching for that which is new in music. The Symphoniae Sacrae I, which were presented in 1629, also testify to this. Schütz composed them as a result of the impressions made upon him by his second journey to Venice. In addition to the numerous Italian stylistic traits which can be traced back to Monteverdi, the 20 concertos - all in Latin - particularly impress with their great variety of timbres: solo pieces, duets and trios for all voice type are combined with diverse string and wind instruments are are governed by the emotional and expressive world of the text. The recording impressively continues the award-winning Schütz complete recording with the Dresdner Kammerchor conducted by Hans-Christoph Radermann with the customary top-quality soloists such as Dorothee Mields, Felix Schwandtke and others.

The work on this new release, St. John Passion, displays composer Heinrich Schutz’s musical maturity and compositional aspirations. The a cappella singing that is scored in this work provides a unique, intimate feel. The Dresdner Kammerchor, directed by Hans-Christoph Rademann, performs this fantastic sacred work.

Heinrich Schütz composed his last work, a monumental setting of Psalm 119, in 1671 at the age of 86, complemented by a setting of Psalm 100, and a setting of the German Magnificat. This group of works, known as the “Schwanengesang”, or “swansong”, is a highly personal musical declaration, distinguished by its elegance and spiritual depth. As part of the Schütz Complete Recording, the Dresdner Kammerchor conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann has again made a recording which sets new standards, presenting both the sung and the expressive elements of the composition in exemplary fashion. This recording of the fragmentary-surviving Schwanengesang is based on a new edition of the music by Werner Breig, published in November 2017 as part of the Stuttgart Schütz Edition. In many passages it suggests other approaches to reconstruction from the version published in 1984, and so approaches the Schwanengesang in a completely different way.

SCHÜTZ Psalmen Davids , op. 2 • Hans-Christoph Rademann, cond; Dresden C Ch; Dresden Baroque O • CARUS 83.255 (2 SACDs: 141:23 Text and Translation)


Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) published his first book of sacred music in 1619, highly influenced by his studies with Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice and not yet restrained by the rigors of the Thirty Years’ War. These psalms are superb examples of the polychoral style. The Psalms of David are very popular on records in collections of his music, but this is just the fourth complete set. Hanns-Martin Schneidt used a large choir of men and boys long ago (CD in Fanfare 22:4), unlike any of the following versions. Frieder Bernius used a sizable chamber choir with women on the top line only (17:1). Konrad Junghänel used only nine voices (22:3). One might count another set on Eterna LP and Berlin CD, but the two conductors (Mauersberger and Flämig) and their different choirs are not similar in style, the psalms were issued on records in at least four groups, and they were never issued together as a set.


Now the fourth set displays its own approach. The distribution of semichoir, full choir, and double choir matches Bernius with half as many singers as he used. Rademann’s timing equals Junghänel’s, with Schneidt 10 minutes faster and Bernius another ten minutes faster. Hence the two smallest ensembles have the broadest timings. Interesting with the two smaller ensembles is the order that Junghänel sets out, mixing up the published order in favor of contrast, while Rademann, as in the two earlier sets, follows the published order. (Notice the opposite on another set in the previous issue, 37:3.) The big difference that makes Rademann so successful is the surround sound, which confers great power on these spectacular works.


If one is looking for an evaluation of the singing and playing, nothing more needs to be said than this—all three of the more recent sets display singing and playing of totally professional quality, stylistically right, without the slightest fault. On the other hand if someone wants to take exception to Schneidt’s boys, so be it, but the three newer sets give no cause for complaint. Yet, when the room is filled with the sound that Carus conjures up, there is nothing left to say. Buy this and revel in Schütz’s op. 2, the gorgeous sound of a German Venice.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

SCHÜTZ Kleine geistliche Konzerte I • Ludger Rémy (org, cond); Ulrike Hofbauer (sop); Dorothee Mields (sop); David Erler (ct); Alexander Schneider (ct); Tobias Mäthger (ten); Georg Poplutz (ten); Felix Schwandtke (bs); Cornelius Uhle (bs); Andreas Wolf (bs); Stefan Maass (thb); Matthias Müller (vne) • CARUS 83.254 (71:32 Text and Translation)


The seventh volume of Carus-Verlag’s complete works of Heinrich Schütz, recordings based on their printed edition, makes no mention among the performers of Hans-Christoph Rademann, the director of the ensemble in previous issues, but he is pictured as the artistic director of the project. Carus-Verlag took over the Stuttgart edition of the printed complete works in 1992, and its website lists 18 volumes of the familiar published works and five volumes of separate pieces, even those with uncertain attributions. For this issue, Ludger Rémy writes a personal note, admitting that as a Catholic he found the music of Schütz alien and stern before he came to understand the times. The 1630s saw Germany as a battleground of the Thirty Years’ War under the guns of Protestant Sweden and Catholic France and the Empire. Schütz had no forces to perform elaborate music such as the Psalms of David, so he had to write for a few voices and continuo. These two volumes appeared in 1636 and 1639, but the composer endowed them with everything he had to create music for worship.


This is the fifth complete set of the music published as op. 8 in 1636. The first set came from Wilhelm Ehmann, at the time highly admired for his stylistic excellence, issued on both Nonesuch and Musical Heritage Society LPs (more recently on Cantate CDs). He was followed by Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden ( Fanfare 13:6), Manfred Cordes (24:1), and Matteo Messori (30:5). All four of these sets were recorded together with the second set of Kleine geistliche Konzerte , op. 9, but we can be sure that Carus will also bring out the second book soon enough. All the sets have been sung by adult mixed voices except Schmidt-Gaden’s boys and men, and one voice to a part except for the optional small chorus at the climax of the last two works in Ehmann’s set. The first four followed the published order, so Carus is the first set to avoid what might be seen as the monotony of four solo works together, 11 duets together, four trios, four quartets, and a final quintet as they occur in the published order. (A similar decision must be made in recording Geistliche Chormusik , an extreme example of how varied the choices can be, as detailed in 31:5.) All used similar continuo accompaniment except Messori, and he omitted it only in six of the 24 pieces. The most notable difference is the choice of tempos, each succeeding set faster than its predecessors by a total of at least several minutes. The times range from Ehmann’s 91 minutes to Carus’s 71 minutes.


Hence, apart from tempo, there is less difference among the five recordings than we find in some other published collections of the composer. Each in turn was welcomed on its merits, even if Cordes is clearly the main competitor to the new offering. In comparing these two conductors in another set (31:2), I expressed a clear preference for Rademann. There is much less difference between the two this time, though Rémy’s ensemble produces brighter interpretations with its faster tempos. The voices are comparably fine, so if you have Cordes already you may choose to skip this entry in the Carus set. A new purchaser will note that this is the first op. 8 on a single disc, since it is the first one fast enough to fit on one. It is a fine continuation of the Carus series.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

Heinrich Schütz is generally regarded as a master of the art of setting text to music, particularly the text of the Bible in its unaltered form which was of substantial significance to Lutheran doctrine. On the other hand, there are only few examples of settings of rhymed texts in Schütz’s oeuvre. One of these is the so-called “Becker-Psalter,” a collection of psalm translations by the Leipzig theologian Cornelius Becker. Shortly after the death of his wife, Schütz concentrated on this collection and set numerous verses to music. In the 15th volume of the Schütz Complete Recording, Hans-Christoph Rademann and his Dresdner Kammerchor present an exceptionally spirited interpretation of a selection of these unusually unadorned, transparent, folk-like compositions.

SCHÜTZ Cantiones Sacrae , Op. 4 • Hans-Christoph Rademann, cond; Dresdn C Ch • CARUS 83.252 (2 CDs: 108: 31 Text and Translation)


The fifth issue in Rademann’s projected complete works of Heinrich Schütz, this publication of 1625 has already been recorded complete three times. Rudolf Mauersberger used a large choir of men and boys with instrumental ensemble; the Eterna recording was once available on Telefunken LPs but, in a Berlin Classics set of 10 CDs of Schütz’s music, never came for review. Manfred Cordes ( Fanfare 20:5) got a rave review for rendering one voice to a part, unaccompanied except for motets that required continuo. Matteo Messori (30:5) also used one voice to a part with organ continuo throughout. The new version has a vocal ensemble of 18 with continuo.


One might wonder why this collection of Latin-texted motets, written over a period of years (some of them were certainly sung for the Emperor Matthias when he visited Dresden in 1617) is not heard as often as the German-texted Geistliche Chor-Musik of 1648, which has been recorded complete 10 times. In a very informative note here, Oliver Geisler shows that Carl von Winterfeld (1834), Philipp Spitta (1894), Joachim Moser (1936), and most recently Clytus Gottwald have singled out the treasures that are to be discovered here, beginning long before the revival of interest in the greatest German composer of the 17th century. The last-named lamented that 20th-century church music has been modeled on the 1648 book instead of this expressionist music that would have led composers in more adventurous directions. It would seem that the music is more admired than loved. Rademann sets out to make it loved.


To read Cordes’s notes is to imagine that, foreseeing this new recording, he was arguing against it in his insistence on one voice to a part without the “rigid sound” of the organ, but his real reference was to Mauersberger’s pioneering set. Rademann shows how light and flexible his singers can sound in this madrigalian music, and the continuo is so discreet as to fade out of hearing. (Indeed, I cannot hear it at all in at least one piece, “Dulcissime et benignissime Christe.”) I find the two versions equally appealing, appreciating the one I am hearing before switching to the other equally impressive performance. My head tells me that Cordes argues persuasively, but my heart tells me that the warmth of Rademann’s multiple voices is unarguable. These Scriptural texts in Latin are not madrigals, after all.


At least six conductors have assembled partial collections of this music to fit a single disc. The largest was two LPs under Helmut Rilling, both issued here on Musical Heritage Society, probably a projected complete set that was never finished. The most recent, a full CD by Erik van Nevel (15:5), was commendable when the only complete set was Mauersberger’s, but van Nevel never made the rest of the book. It should be noted that I referred in that review to “41 motets;” the correct count is 40, since “Pater noster” is printed twice as the secunda pars of two motets. If you have not discovered the marvels of this book, I urge you to hear Rademann. He promises to give us a commendable complete works.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

SCHÜTZ Auferstehungshistoire, SWV 501. Ich weiß, dass mein Erlöser lebet, SWV 457. Christ ist erstanden, SWV 470. Cantante Domino canticum novum, SWV 463. Surrexit pastor bonus, SWV50. Es gingen zweene Menschen hinauf, SWV 444 • Hans-Christoph Rademann, cond; 1Gerlinde Sämann (Mary Magdalene); 1Georg Poplutz (Evangelist); 1Felix Rumpf (Jesus); Dresden C Ch; Sirius Viols; Instrumenta Musica • CARUS 83.256 (2 CDs: 60: 48 Text and Translation)

As J. F. Weber just contributed an excellent review of this release to these pages in 37:6, I will confine myself to a few supplemental remarks concerning points he did not cover. One of Schütz’s earlier compositions, the Auferstehungshistorie, is remarkably rich in compositional conception. The text, a conflation from the four Gospel narratives, is by Johannes Bugenhagen (1485–1558), a theological ally of Martin Luther. The three main roles are those of the Evangelist, Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. Of these, however, only that of the Evangelist as narrator is assigned to a solo voice; the other two (and also the brief role of the young man in the sepulcher) are given to two voices singing in harmony. Numerous other comprimario roles—the three women, the two angels at the tomb, the council of the chief priests, and (with a significant exception of one solo question posed by Cleopas) the two disciples on the road to Emmaus—are likewise doubled or tripled for solo voices, rather than assigned to individual solo voices or a full choir. This allows Schütz to alternate between narrative line and direct speech, and to treat the intertwined solo voices like concertante instrumental lines, thereby achieving numerous striking effects. (His other oratorio and passion settings, all composed after the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War had greatly reduced imperial and ducal funding for musical activities, employed far more economical forces.) However, Schütz also explicitly provided the option of giving one of the two vocal lines for Jesus, Mary, etc. to an instrument instead, or even to omit the secondary line altogether, which if done tilts the character of the performance toward a theatrical, almost proto-operatic, style.

All of which brings us to an interesting point. While I have not heard every recording of this work (seven are currently listed at ArkivMusic), I am familiar with most of them, and this is the first one I have encountered which employs the option of a solo voice with instrumental accompaniment rather than two voices in the parts of Jesus, Mary, and the young man. As such, it came as a surprise to me. While I continue to prefer the more traditional approach of giving all the parts in question to voices, this version is consequently of considerable importance for presenting listeners with the less common but still composer-sanctioned alternative. As for the caliber of the performance, I am in full agreement with Weber that this version is excellent, but that the Hillier recording on Da Capo (reviewed by Weber in 33:5 and by me in 35:4) sets the gold standard here, which no other recording quite matches. (Weber gave the Bernius recording an enthusiastic endorsement in a feature article back in 14:4, but he has apparently changed his mind, as in his review of that disc he now says that it has “some serious interpretive faults.”)

The five filler pieces are motets and polychoral concertos, which, while not all having texts explicitly concerned with Eastertide, are related to it in broader theological terms by the exceptionally fine booklet notes. Cantate Domino canticum novum is an arrangement by Schütz of a motet from the Symphoniae sacre of his teacher in Venice, Giovanni Gabrieli. Christ ist erstanden, believed to be the earliest work that Schütz composed for Easter, has not survived intact and is performed here in a reconstruction by musicologist Werner Berg. Both it and the Surrexit pastor bonus feature complex polyphonic lines and especially rich instrumentation, whereas the later Ich weiß, dass mein Erlöser lebet employs somewhat simpler means. Finally, Es gingen zweene Menschen hinauf ingeniously presents the parable of the Pharisee and the publican by giving the former an upbeat, skipping musical line that portrays his smug self-satisfaction and providing the latter with a repeatedly interjected keening vocal phrase to signify his heartfelt contrition and repeated striking of his breast in remorse. The recorded sound matches the excellence of the previous entries in this complete Schütz edition. In sum, strongly recommended—but, please, give us the complete Becker Psalter soon!

FANFARE: James A. Altena

SCHÜTZ 12 geistliche Gesänge • Hans-Christoph Rademann, cond; Dresden CCh • CARUS 83.239 (60:01 Text and Translation)

"The two latest issues in Hans-Christoph Rademann’s projected complete works of Heinrich Schütz offer some of the few pieces that have never been recorded (though not as many as claimed). The 12 spiritual songs were published as op. 13 in 1657, but like the Becker Psalms have escaped the complete-recording approach of the other published books (as noted in Fanfare 29:5). These are utilitarian pieces, which accounts for their neglect. The first six make up a Lutheran service, the next two a Vespers, then a litany, then three pieces for use at home, including a blessing before meals and a thanksgiving after the meal. These mealtime pieces are still sung at the Kreuzchor boarding school. This realizes the intention of Christoph Kittel, a choirmaster, who arranged for this collection to be published “for practical use in churches and schools.”

Six of these (including the first four and the two Vespers pieces) were recorded by Martin Zöbeley (30:4), some of them for the first time. Of the other two parts of the Lutheran service, Ich danke dem Herrn was recorded by Henri Ledroit and Danksagen wir alle Gott by Siegfried Köhler; oddly, these two had only once been recorded previously, and that was by Hugo Rüdel in Berlin in 1930. The remaining four pieces seem to be first recordings. These are modest and pleasant pieces unworthy of such neglect, and this recording moves us closer to a complete recording of Schütz’s works. Its purchase is mandatory for all true Sagittarians."

FANFARE: J. F. Weber

SCHUBERT Mass No. 6. MOZART Vesperae solennes de confessore • Charles Mackerras, cond; Genia Kühmeier (sop); Christa Mayer (mez); Timothy Robinson (ten); Oliver Ringelhahn (ten); Matthew Rose (bs); Dresden St Op Ch; Staatskapelle Dresden • CARUS 83.249 (76:45 Text and Translation) Live: Dresden 4/26/2008


Schubert’s last Mass is a marvel from start to finish and is regularly recorded, though few are the performances that enter the pantheon. Charles Mackerras’s first encounter with the Dresden Orchestra, recorded live in the Frauenkirche, joins my two favorites, by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Wolfgang Sawallisch, and offers a generous complement, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore , which is not often heard in its entirety. The Staatskapelle is in great form, using narrow-bore trombones that offer a lighter sound than today’s instruments. But it is the hand of Sir Charles who knows exactly how the music should go that makes this performance special. The tempos are just right, the awe perfectly inspired, the transitions perfectly managed, so that the listener, too, is caught up in the wonder that is Schubert’s E?-Major Mass. The soloists are angelic in their major contribution, “Et incarnatus est.” Mackerras does not linger, his timing about the same as Harnoncourt, 51 minutes. The Mozart is composed of six psalms, five of which are choral with solo interventions; the sixth is that wonderful solo for soprano and choir, “Laudate Dominum,” which occasionally turns up on recital discs of sacred music. Genia Kühmeier floats the long lines of her solo while enthusiastically joining her colleagues in the remaining sections. A must.


FANFARE: Joel Kasow

SCHIEFERDECKER Triumph, Belial ist nun erleget. Auf, auf, mein Herz. In te Domine speravi. Weicht, ihr schwarzen Trauerwolken. Concertos: No. 9 in g; No. 13 in c • Simone Eckert, cond; Klaus Mertens (bs); Jan Kobow (ten); Hamburger Ratsmusik (period instruments) • CARUS 83.398 (62:18 Text and Translation)


For someone as obscure as Johann Christian Schieferdecker, a pupil of Buxtehude, he certainly has gotten his share of play recently. Not only has my colleague Michael Carter reviewed one of the concertos ( Fanfare 34:3) but another, Jerry Dubins, reviewed and recommended an entire disc of these instrumental works in a recent issue ( Fanfare 35:6) performed by the Elbipolis Hamburg period-instrument ensemble on Challenge. Both found them recommendable, though the latter seemed reticent on whether or not Schieferdecker represents a marvelous new rediscovery. This disc may not decide that issue, but I do find it curious that in the space of a very short time, a composer who was completely dissed by Johann Mattheson, the early chronicler of Hamburg music but who grew up practically as the blood brother of Reinhard Keiser, should suddenly emerge from shadows. Maybe it is something in the water in Hamburg, or maybe this relatively new period-instrument ensemble there decided that it was tired of the giants, C. P. E. Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann. Or maybe this is Schieferdecker’s 15 minutes of fame in the world of recorded music. Whatever the reason, we now have a selection of his compositions that demonstrates his ability and talent in the midst of other better-known figures.


Schieferdecker was, by any stretch of the imagination, a solid, well-educated, and talented composer. He was the son of an organist, attended school in Leipzig where he wrote his first operas, and returned to Hamburg to become a colleague of Telemann, Keiser, Mattheson, and Handel, toiling away in the opera house there. When Buxtehude sought a successor, it was Schieferdecker who was able to walk away with the job. Apparently he did not have the same qualms about marrying Buxtehude’s long-in-the-tooth daughter as his other friends, and when she died a couple of years later, he raised their child to continue the musical succession. As a composer, he was a chronological contemporary of Telemann (though he died in 1732, more than three decades before his colleague), but it is not clear exactly how much music he actually wrote. There were about a dozen operas written for Leipzig and Hamburg (all seemingly lost), and he certainly was active in Lübeck as Buxtehude’s successor, writing Abendmusik , pieces for organ, and in 1713 publishing a set of 12 Musicalische Concerte (probably best translated literally as “Musical Concerts,” rather than concertos, but in the insecure generic designation of the time indicating simply pieces—in this case each a rather conventional French suite). This disc, however, presents a somewhat old-fashioned throwback to the previous century in the form of the sacred concerto, which by the 18th century had long gone out of practice. These pieces, in reality sort of proto-cantatas each ending with a chorale, form a sort of halfway house between the traditional Baroque Lutheran cantata and the more amorphous Abendmusik , this defined as miniature movements of a contemplative nature. It is not known when he wrote the four pieces here, but the sparse setting of a voice and minimal string accompaniment with continuo may indicate that these are early works, possibly even about 1700. As these are the only ones that apparently have survived, the disc is filled out with two suites from the 1713 set, both of which were recorded on the aforementioned Challenge disc.


Three of these sacred concertos are in German, and one uses a Latin text that was often used as an offertory (the “In te Domine speravi” movement diverges from its other usage as the final portion of the Te Deum hymn). All are very much in the vein of Buxtehude, with the voice accompanied by a pair of violins and continuo. The Latin concerto omits one of the violin parts, in essence becoming a more common solo cantata. Many of the violin lines seem to remind one of Henry Purcell, with brief fanfares (such as in “Triumph, Belial ist nun erleget”) and the occasional use of the ground bass. But in that same concerto, the second aria, “Wenn die Bosheit,” reduces things to a continuo, lending a sort of Scarlatti feel. The chorales often use the solo voice in hymnlike fashion above some nice countermelodies in the violins, such as in the “Gott Vater” of Auf, auf mein Herz . The harmony can also be a bit gnarly, with unexpected twists and sudden non-sequitur chords shifting it momentarily. The finest example of this is in the opening aria of Weicht, ihr schwarzen Trauerwolken . And occasionally there is a rapid-fire parlando delivery of the text (“Sicut erat” in In te Domine speravi ) that brings to mind a sort of Baroque rap, telescoping the line on a single pitch in a way that is quite remarkable.


The performance by the group Hamburger Ratsmusik is extremely good. They are all on pitch, handle the twisting and turning violin lines with ease, and there is a nice pacing by viol player Simone Eckert, who also conducts the ensemble. Their sensitive playing is the reason some of the odder moments do not become musical parodies, but rather demonstrate Schieferdecker’s sometimes unique compositional method. Klaus Mertens, of course, does his usual stellar job. This is just the sort of music he excels in, and his flexible bass handles the composer’s often unusual melodic contours perfectly. Tenor Jan Kobow, too, does an outstanding job in his one outing, the Latin concerto, being nicely on pitch and cognizant of the compositional peculiarities.


Echoing my colleague, I sincerely doubt that Schieferdecker is the next Baroque sensation on the horizon. For one thing, there isn’t that much left, barring a rediscovery of the lost operas or some other archival treasure trove. For another, the music is perhaps too quirky in terms of substance and style compared with his other Hamburg compatriots, all of whom went on to achieve major status in the musical world. But what remains as on this disc offers enough unusual variety to be worth a listen, and given that the performance here by the Ratsmusik is solid and well done, one would not go astray by including this in one’s collection.


FANFARE: Bertil van Boer