A compelling survey of contemporary Polish choral writing. These sacred works range from inward, contemplative meditations to radiant, exultant hymns, their contemporary musical language finely balanced with the lucid, finely blended sonority of a chamber choir. With ten widely admired recordings to it's name and numerous festival distinctions, the Kielce-based choir Fermata has earned a reputation for interpretative insight, tonal refinement, and exemplary musicianship. For the listener, this is music experienced ex anima-from the soul-inviting a deeply felt and spiritually resonant encounter.

This unprecedented recording - released precisely in the year of the celebrations commemorating one of the most significant figures in human history - explores the musical output of Padre Giambattista Martini dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi. A Franciscan friar and ecclesiastical musician, as well as a learned teacher and tireless researcher, Martini composed a Mass (incomplete) and various motets in honour of the Saint. From these, the Ensemble San Pietro - directed by Marcello Rossi and Giacomo Contro - has reconstructed a complete "Franciscan" Mass. The essay accompanying the CD also features a curious analogy between the composer and his saintly dedicatee, supported by a careful analysis of historical documents.

The compositions of Rev. Michal Roman Szulik-conductor, musicologist, and composer-stand as a testament to the musical life of the community gathered around the cathedral in Siedlce. Their defining quality lies in the composer's devoted preservation of the stylistic language of sacred music. Written for a cappella choir or with organ accompaniment, these settings of texts-ranging from medieval psalms and hymns to contemporary works-reveal a profound command of the history of liturgical vocal music, while also reflecting the composer's deep reverence for a tradition cultivated over many centuries.

Gregorio Zucchini, Floriano Canale, and Antonio Mortaro. What unites these three composers? At least three shared traits: they all lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, they are the shining stars of their respective compositional traditions (Benedictine, Augustinian, and Franciscan), and through their customary wanderings, these monk-composers worked in various Venetian mainland territories, including Brescia. This anthology offers the listener the chance to appreciate the stylistic nuances of the three composers while presenting a historically plausible context that showcases a diversity of composers as well as a variety of compositional and performance practices In this discovery journey, the listener is gonna be exploring also the celebrated Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli from Venice.

The Cappella musicale di Santa Maria in Campitelli, conducted by Maestro Vincenzo Di Betta, who has already been responsible for significant recording revivals such as Orazio Benevoli's "Missa in angustia pestilentiæ" (TC600201), Bonaventura Rubino's "Messa de' Morti" (TC601803), and Francesco Giovannini's "Messa à Quattro" (TC700703), is now engaged in this new and notably interesting musical production. This rediscovery focuses on two sacred oratorios from the seventeenth century by two authors active in the Neapolitan orbit: Francesco Nicolò de Rossi, a priest of Apulian origin, and Cristoforo Caresana, of Venetian origin and formerly the organist of St. Mark's Basilica. The two works - performed with the ensemble's customary expertise - are interspersed with an instrumental battle piece by Andrea Falconieri, composed in the spirit of that Baroque theatricality which is the main ingredient of these works and of the sacred musical masterpieces of the seventeenth century.

The Kölner Akademie, under the artistic direction of Michael Alexander Willens, presents J. S. Bach: Lutheran Masses BWV 233-236, a monumental exploration of the composer's four Kyrie-Gloria Masses. Written in the 1730s, during a period of profound artistic consolidation, these works reveal Bach at his most resourceful. Drawn largely from his finest cantata music, the Masses showcase his unparalleled ability to transform earlier material through refined counterpoint, enriched orchestration, and deep sensitivity to the Latin Ordinary. Long overshadowed by the Mass in B minor, these so-called "Lutheran Masses" emerge here as brilliant creations in their own right, each shaped with architectural clarity: six movements, impeccably balanced between choral grandeur and intimate arias. In this cycle, Bach fuses theological tradition with inventive musical craft. Whether reworking festive choruses, expanding expressive arias, or integrating older settings with newly imagined timbres, he elevates the transformation of earlier material into a profound creative process - producing music that feels both familiar and entirely renewed. By gathering the four Masses into a unified artistic vision, The Kölner Akademie illuminates their shared structural features, vibrant instrumentation, and emotional breadth.

Magnificent sacred music with trumpets and timpani, crowns and concludes the five-part series dedicated to the music of Gregor Joseph Werner. The album unites four multifaceted world premiere recordings that present Haydn's predecessor at Esterházy Palace as a forward-looking master of his time.

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.

Giovanni Battista Riccio lived in Venice when the city's music was dominated by illustrious figures such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli. Riccio won aristocratic patrons and his surviving three collections of sacred music, which also contain instrumental compositions, attest to his standing in the city and beyond. His music is flowing and full of variety, not least in the liveliness of motifs, use of binary and triple time, sound painting and employment of echo effects. His Motets setting passages from the Song of Songs, offer unusually expressive and refined depth.

This world premiere recording production was the rediscovery of composer Arturo Clementoni, active in Ascoli Piceno from the first two decades of the 20th century as chapel master and organist. The picture that emerges from the documentation of his activities is that of a person who lived and worked fully in the rich, lively musical humus of his land, and was loved and respected by his fellow citizens, but also esteemed by the great musical personalities of his time. For his activity as a composer he received a great number of awards, for instance the first prize for his Missa Jubilaris at the composition contest proclaimed in 1950 (declared Holy Year by Pope Pius xii) by Carrara of Bergamo, the most important Italian publisher of that period in the field of sacred and liturgical music. The life and work of Arturo Clementoni fit perfectly in the artistic and cultural current of the Cecilian Movement, whose ideals and rules were officially sanctioned by Pope Pius x's Motu proprio "Inter plurimas pastoralis officii sollicitudines", issued on 22 November 1903. The symphonic chorale Cristo risusciti undoubtedly is a peak among Clementoni's works that are known so far, and because of it's quality and breadth deserves to be seriously rediscovered in the context of the great organ literature of the twentieth century in Europe. The Missa Jubilaris is worthy of a special mention because of the spirituality with which it is imbued and because it achieves a successful mixture of an evocation of Gregorian atmospheres, a solid polyphonic framework, and bursts of symphonic-style elan.

With this release, cpo, the Gutenberg Soloists, and the Neumeyer Consort under Felix Koch have now completed an impressive five of the planned seven parts of their shared journey-on the way to what promises to be the first and, for a long time to come, likely the only and uniquely comprehensive recording of the cantatas that the extraordinarily industrious Georg Philipp Telemann composed in 1713/14 for the services at Frankfurt's Barfußerkirche. This latest volume is devoted to the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost and also includes additional works designated for the Sundays after Trinity-each of them a smaller or greater marvel, rich in imagery that appeals to all the senses and pays full tribute to the instructive texts of the poetic pastor Erdmann Neumeister.

As a boy, Francesco Cavalli was a member of San Marco Basilica's Chapel, then directed by Claudio Monteverdi, from whom he probably received tuition. In time Cavalli's fame as an operatic composer spread across Europe and he succeeded Monteverdi in San Marco to reach the apex of success in Venice. He also wrote sacred music, published in two great printed collections. The first collection, published in 1656, contains his Missa a 8 voci Concertata, an imposing and magnificent work of exceptional complexity for eight soloists, two four-voiced choirs and many instrumentalists. In this recording it is performed in the context of an All Saints' Day liturgy by Ensemble Locatelli, directed by Cavalli scholar, Bruno Gini.

On February 1, 2025, Ivan Repusic, chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, directed Boris Papandopulo's 1942 Croatian Mass for soloists and a cappella choir in Munich's Prinzregententheater with the Bavarian Radio Chorus. BR-KLASSIK is now presenting this outstanding interpretation of the impressive sacred composition on CD as a live recording. The Croatian composer and conductor Boris Papandopulo (1906-1991) worked as a choirmaster, conductor and opera director in Split, Rijeka, Zagreb and Sarajevo. He created more than 400 compositions, spanning almost every genre. Although of Greek origin, Papandopulo was deeply rooted in the Croatian musical tradition, and his broad stylistic spectrum extended to neo-classicism, jazz, pop and folk music. His works combine elements of Croatian folk music with twelve-tone music and demand a high level of virtuosity. Papandopulo completed his training in Zagreb and at the New Conservatory in Vienna, spending the majority of his life in Croatia. The Croatian Mass is a sacred work in the spirit and style of centuries-old Croatian vocal music as well as being a practical choral composition. It is composed without orchestral or organ accompaniment, as Croatian choral music is almost exclusively sung a cappella. Papandopulo composed the mass for the First Croatian Choral Society Kolo, which he directed from 1928 to 1934 and again from 1938 to 1946. He completed his Croatian Mass in 1938, and it premiered in Zagreb on April 1, 1942, performed by the Croatian Choral Society Kolo under the composer's direction. Although the Croatian translation of the Roman Catholic liturgy gives the work a certain national flavour, the piece is primarily influenced by the tradition of old Dalmatian church hymns. Composed in a polyphonic style, it's syllabic and diatonic text settings are generally characteristic of Croatian vocal music.

Among the notable musicians born in the city of Pavia, Franco Vittadini is undoubtedly one of the most significant. The city's Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali is named in his honor, and he served as it's director from 1924 until his death. Maria Cecilia Farina uses historical organs on which to perform the author's organ music in a precise and philological manner. Rarely - and always in deference to the liturgical context - does Vittadini employ a grand and solemn language, using organo pleno sonorities or indulging in virtuosic displays. His stylistic hallmark is instead a gentle melancholy: a crepuscular atmosphere - comparable to the poetry of Guido Gozzano or Sergio Corazzini - and a contemplative, idyllic/nostalgic attitude pervade his pages, expressing his sense of faith.

Here it is, my poor little Mass. Have I truly composed sacred music, or merely something sacrilegious? With these words, the 72-year-old Gioachino Rossini addressed the "dear Lord", to whom he wished to dedicate his most extensive and, at the same time, one of his most significant and original late works - a sacred composition of nearly full-length dimensions akin to a grand cathedral Mass. However, the instrumentation consists only of instruments commonly found in any well-appointed 19th-century household. A piano and a harmonium accompany the soloists and choir, enriching the performance with lively rhythms, intricate figures, and distinctive sonic textures. The treatment of the liturgical text is not entirely orthodox: "I was born for opera buffa. You know that well!" Rossini confessed to the Lord more than thirty years after composing his last opera. And he expressed his gratitude for this special gift with "a touch of skill and a touch of heart" - enough to captivate both earthly and heavenly audiences alike.

After Stralsund and Danzig, Magdeburg is the third stop on Manfred Cordes' journey through the cities of the Hanseatic League. This stop not only takes him to a city quite far from the sea but also to the earliest period of Protestant church music. Magdeburg introduced the Reformation already in 1524, just seven years after Luther's decisive act. Immediately, the transformation began of what the former monk from Eisleben cherished as a "gift and blessing from God" and saw as an effective means of preaching the Gospel. A genuine "Magdeburg School" emerged, with it's representatives cultivating and developing the music of the new faith up until the Thirty Years' War. This program follows that tradition, bringing to life the works of cantors from Martin Agricola to Heinrich Grimm, thus allowing compositions spanning approximately 120 years to resound once more.

The name of Father Vallotti, a Conventual Franciscan, esteemed musician and valuable teacher, is still known nowadays particularly for his speculative works. He was considered by Bonifazio Asioli, "the greatest of the Italian harmonists", and his appointment at the Berlin court confirms he was appreciated not only in his homeland. His harmonic knowledge and uncommon compositional virtue have given us pages of rare elegance where the liturgical and sacred aspect is distilled in every chord.

By modern standards, Thomas Muntzer might be described as a liberation theologian. A few years before his violent death, the ordained priest married a former nun (like Martin Luther), devoted himself to helping the needy, and ultimately became actively involved in the Peasants' War-actions that alienated him from both the secular authorities and Luther himself. Muntzer, an impassioned advocate for the oppressed, met his end on the executioner's block in 1525. On May 27, 2025, the 500th anniversary of his execution will be commemorated. To mark the occasion, the vocal ensemble Amarcord presents two works Muntzer created as part of his liturgical reforms: the first German-language Christmas Mass and the Amt (Office) and Matins for Easter. Muntzer translated the texts from Latin into German, aligning them with traditional chorale melodies. The result is a deeply contemplative experience, lasting over 75 minutes.

The phrase 'Baltic music' is not just a label, but a key that unlocks the rich creativity of composers living around the Baltic Sea. However, it is more than a specific style, mood, or aesthetic. It is about a diverse landscape of Baltic music, each piece being a unique story of individual experience, desire, and reflection of identity. The Baltic identity manifests itself in the most diverse ways, as a cultural tapestry that is both engaging and intriguing. The album Baltic Prayer opens up part of this landscape, united by the motifs of peace, and a conversation with oneself, others, or God. Works by the Lithuanian composers Anatolijus senderovas and Jurgis Juozapaitis, by the Latvian composer P?teris Vasks, and by the Estonian composer Arvo Part, are presented. Next to them are some stylistically close compositions by the Norwegian star of choral music Ola Gjeilo, the British composer John Tavener, and the Ukrainian Myroslav Skoryk.

Jesus, tortured and dying for the sins of the world: This is how the Hamburg librettist and senator Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747) titled his dramatic adaptation of the Passion narrative-a text so popular that it was set to music nearly a dozen times in Hamburg alone. Composers included Reinhard Keiser, Johann Mattheson, George Frideric Handel, and Georg Philipp Telemann, among others. The jurist and diplomat Jacob Schuback (1726-1784) also composed his version of this so-called Brockes-Passion. And one must not assume that he, the son of a highly respected family, was merely a dilettante in the art of music. What Schuback created around the age of 30 during his musical "leisure hours" is, in the truest sense of the word, a gripping work. Choruses, recitatives, and arias follow one another with an almost operatic intensity, while characters imbued with vivid reality come to life with striking immediacy. Unsurprisingly, this Passion acquires a more profound, secondary significance

Christoph Demantius has largely been forgotten, likely because so little is known about his life. Born in late 1567 in Reichenberg, Bohemia, he studied in Wittenberg and served as cantor in Zittau before taking the same position at Freiberg Cathedral in 1604, where he remained until his death. Beyond these sparse details, his biography offers little more. His body of work, however, is anything but modest. Among his compositions, the Johannes-Passion of 1631 stands as a monumental achievement - a pinnacle of early Baroque Passion settings. In this work, a six-voice ensemble narrates the Passion story "collectively", employing intricate vocal counterpoint and an unparalleled expressive intensity. Ensemble director Alexander Schneider has included music by Andreas Hammerschmidt, Heinrich Schutz, Johann Hermann Schein, and other contemporaries to enrich the program. The result offers a vivid reconstruction of how a Good Friday service in central Germany might have sounded - assuming, of course, that an ensemble as skilled as Polyharmonique was performing.

Roland Wilson has a remarkable talent for handling the music of the 16th and 17th centuries. His impressive reconstruction of Heinrich Schutz's Dafne, the first German opera, remains well remembered. His current work will undoubtedly find it's place alongside it: This is how the grand Festive Mass may have sounded, with which all of Venice in 1631 celebrated the end of a plague epidemic that had claimed a third of the population. The Doge fulfilled his vow and commissioned the construction of the Santa Maria della Salute church. The Serenissima Repubblica rejoiced, and Claudio Monteverdi provided music whose splendor was hardly to be surpassed. Among other things, he used "slide trumpets", which allowed for extraordinary tones: they can be seen in old paintings and are heard - reconstructed - in this recording. This is how a republic once expressed it's gratitude.

Instructing and educating Christians on the one hand and delighting their minds on the other, so that the words and truths of the Holy Scripture would be anchored deeply within them - this was the purpose of the sacred cantata. No master of the Baroque era wrote more of these than Georg Philipp Telemann. He approached this seemingly 'tedious work' with such incredible imagination that his congregations could never be bored. One need only listen to the so-called French Cycle (1713-14). To this end, Vol. 4 contributes ten more first recordings. There are certainly meditative moments in both the music for Advent presented here and the cantatas written for the 'normal' Sundays of the church year; but these works predominantly feature colourful, enormously picturesque music throughout. They always get straight to the heart of the worship service's message and are still instantly appealing today.

We know relatively little about the composer and church musician Paul Ignaz Liechtenauer. His father was an organ builder and organist in Vienna, and Liechtenauer himself served as Kapellmeister in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein until 1711. By 1715, he had taken up the position of organist at the Cathedral of Osnabruck, soon after assuming the title of "Capellmeister" and gaining a reputation for his liturgical music that was widely acclaimed. Four of the six masses he published in 1741 as Opus 2 are now featured on the latest CD by the Kolner Akademie, which, under the direction of it's founder, Michael Alexander Willens, once again astonishes us. There is a touch of local patriotism in this release: classic production osnabruck is located less than ten kilometers from the high church where the composer served for over 40 years.

This is the best of me wrote Edward Elgar in 1900 at the end of the manuscript of The Dream of Gerontius. This impressive and modern new recording of Elgar's magnum opus by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon features alongside mezzo-soprano Christine Rice, tenor John Findon and baritone Roderick Williams, singers from five different choirs: Helsinki Music Centre Choir, Cambridge University Symphony Chorus, Dominante, Helsinki Chamber Choir and Alumni of the Choir of Clare College Cambridge.