Johann Kuhnau-Bach's immediate predecessor as Thomaskantor-in an 8-CD box that offers more than a mere collection of works: the individually issued recordings from 2013 to 2022 by Opella Musica, Camerata Lipsiensis, and Gregor Meyer are brought together as a complete sacred corpus with editorial coherence, making audible how Leipzig's church music takes shape at the threshold of the eighteenth century and beyond. From intimate, chamber-scaled pieces to representative festive compositions, one can trace how compositional technique, the relationship between voices and instruments, and the overall sonic architecture gain definition in the early decades of the eighteenth century-a sounding point of reference for what Bach would later adopt and develop in Leipzig.

Vom Reden und Klingen showcases the artistry of Laurens de Man, the first organist to be awarded the prestigious Nederlandse Muziekprijs. The album is a highly original recital consisting entirely of program music (music that depicts a story). These organ pieces by Bach, Mozart, Kuhnau, and Kurtag are therefore rare specimens of program music outside the 19th century. Laurens de Man plays the newly reconstructed Contius organ at the St.-Michielskerk in Leuven, Belgium

The next-to-last album in our complete recording of Johann Kuhnau’s cantatas once again presents outstanding examples of German Lutheran church music. “They reinforce the positive impression created by the previous volumes. The singers very much know their way around Kuhnau, and this knowledge is rendered audible. The instrumental parts are perfectly executed” (musicweb international of Vol. 6). Kuhnau’s magnificent cantata “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” for five-part choir, two corni grandi, two recorders, five-part strings (with divided violas), and basso continuo is certainly an outstanding composition within his oeuvre and a special highlight on Vol. 7. This work has been transmitted in a copy made by the renowned Weimar city organist and lexicographer Johann Gottfried Walther, who is known to have engaged in personal dialogue with Kuhnau. The cantata is framed by Philipp Nicolai’s sacred hymn of the same name and traces its origins to an anonymous poet, and in it Kuhnau lives up in every way to the outstanding reputation that he enjoyed among his contemporaries as a vocal composer in the devotional church style. The opening chorus clothes the chorale in a musical fabric of great sonority consisting of imitations, in anticipation, in repetition, and of motet character, such as only a few composers of his generation could have committed to paper.