This record launches a large-scale project: the world’s first complete recording of an entire annual cycle of seventy-two church cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann for...

This record launches a large-scale project: the world’s first complete recording of an entire annual cycle of seventy-two church cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann for large ensembles (written in Frankfurt, 1714-15). All the featured singers perform in the “Gutenberg Soloists” vocal ensemble consisting of twelve members – in accordance with the Baroque practice, in which the solo parts are assumed by members of the choral ensemble.

This first double album present cantatas from the late summer of 1715 and five additional cantatas for the Lenten season from the cycle known as the “French Annual Cycle.” A significant reference is found on the original Frankfurt organ part of Telemann’s cantata “Gott schweige doch nicht also” from this year: “Judica, from the French Annual Cycle." This means the cantata concerned was intended for the Fifth Sunday in Lent; that is, it belonged precisely to the annual cycle of church cantatas that contemporaries called “French” because of its style. This is music worth discovering – and not only by and for Telemann fans!