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Bach: Preludes & Fugues
Gothic Jan 2009
CD
$18.99

Music from Saxon Castle Churches

Cantate

$9.99 Jul 25, 2025

In the eighteenth century, a special genre of instrumental ensemble playing developed in church music: works were written for a wind instrument and obbligato organ. The geographical center of this genre was the kingdom of Saxony along with Thuringia. The majority of these works specify oboe as the wind instrument, less frequently horn or even trumpet, flute, or bassoon. Besides a few compositions in a free style, these were predominantly chorale preludes in which the wind instrument played the cantus firmus (the chorale melody), and the organ, usually in trio textures, performed elaborate, often very virtuoso figurations.

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Music from Saxon Castle Churches
Cantate Jul 2025
CD
$9.99

Vision Bach, Vol. 7

Haenssler Classic

$24.99 ~~$32.99~~ Save 25% Jun 06, 2025

It is a mammoth project that the Stuttgart International Bach Academy has undertaken: All sixty cantatas from Johann Sebastian Bach's first year in office as St. Thomas Cantor will be performed in a total of 23 concerts and recorded on CDs. Vol. 7 is now available should convince even skeptics. For what Hans-Christoph Rademann, his Gaechinger Cantorey and hand-picked soloists reveal here in terms of vocal-instrumental coordination, tonal differentiation and rhetorically trained creative artistry probably marks the pinnacle of historically informed performance practice at present. The choir presents itself extremely agile in fugal passages, but also with sufficient sonorous warmth in the chorales, and the orchestra with it's excellent soloists (trumpet!) matches this level. We can look forward to further releases in this series.

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Vision Bach, Vol. 7
Haenssler Classic Jun 2025
CD
~~$32.99~~ $24.99

Im Herbst - Choral Works By Brahms & Schubert
BIS Oct 2011
SACD
$21.99

Tüür: Canticum Canticorum Caritatis / Üksvärav, Collegium Musicale Chamber Choir

Alpha

$20.99 Mar 10, 2023

This album contains a selection of key a cappella choral works by Erkki-Sven Tüür. For the Estonian composer born in 1959, words and music are intimately linked. The number of syllables in a word, the position of the tonic accent, and the word as a cultural phenomenon with a definite meaning are of essential importance. This can be heard in the Kyrie of his Missa Brevis (2013) where, like a spiral, the polyphony of the voices is transformed into a chordal texture at the beginning of the ‘Christe eleison’, and then dissolves into individual voices at the second ‘Kyrie eleison’.

Canticum Canticorum Caritatis (2020) is inspired by St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. Tüür dedicated this work to Endrik Üksvärav and Collegium Musicale, the performers on this album. The multidimensional Omnia Mutantur (2020) possesses an extremely clear structure, interweaving the famous thoughts of Ovid and Virgil about the transient nature of all things. Triglosson Trishagion (2008), indebted to the Orthodox tradition and sung in Estonian, Russian and Greek, and Wanderer’s Evening Song (2001) complete this program, which is characterized by a meditative, interiorized approach to the composer.

REVIEW:

Erkki-Sven Tüür is one of the most important Estonian composers of the 20th/21st century, and this album pays outstanding tribute to him with an insight into his work for a cappella choir.

The Collegium Musicale under Endrik Üksvärä succeeds again and again in disentangling the dense sound textures of Tüür’s music, transforming them into a floating sound of delicate intimacy, which now and then can also be very expressive and decisive – for example in the Credo of the Missa Brevis.

The album bears the title of the most recent work on this recording – Canticum canticorum caritatis from 2020 – in which the central concept of caritas is the musical and interpretive focus.

The last work on the recording – Rändaja õhtulaul/Wanderer’s Nightsong – is no less expressive, with recourse to Gregorian chant. Here, too, the Collegium Musicale hits the mood right on the nose time and again: the trembling dreams, the calls from eternity, wrapped in mystically suggestive interpretations.

-- Pizzicato

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Tüür: Canticum Canticorum Caritatis / Üksvärav, Collegium Musicale Chamber Choir
Alpha Mar 2023
CD
$20.99

BACH BOLOGNE PREVIN VIVALDI WILLIAMS
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON Dec 2023
CD
$14.99

Messiah Choruses

Coro

$18.99 Apr 18, 2025

Handel's Messiah needs no introduction. This mighty yet majestic masterpiece is the most popular oratorio ever written and includes, arguably, the most famous chorus of all time-the iconic Hallelujah! Handel was a master chorus writer and for Messiah he certainly pulled out all the stops, placing the choir front and centre throughout. Although it has become synonymous with Christmas, Messiah was originally written as an Easter offering, bursting onto the stage of the Musick Hall in Dublin in April 1742. Taken from it's Award-winning 2008 complete recording of Messiah (COR16062), this collection from The Sixteen celebrates the wonderful choruses that have given so many singers, both amateur and professional, such joy and inspired an enduring love for this epic work.

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Messiah Choruses
Coro Apr 2025
CD
$18.99

Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele

Oehms Classics

$7.49 ~~$14.99~~ Save 50% Apr 24, 2012

The present CD is dedicated to one of the most beautiful new organs in Austria, the instrument from the Lenter workshop built in early 2010 in the parish church "Unserer lieben Frau Geburt" in Maishofen with 25 sounding stops. Thanks to it's soft, sustainable and very natural sound, this organ is ideally suited for the adequate presentation of organ music of all significant epochs; combined with the warm acoustics, this organ is inspiring to an exceptional degree for players and listeners alike.

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Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele
Oehms Classics Apr 2012
CD
~~$14.99~~ $7.49

J. S. Bach: Dritter Theil der Clavier Ubung

Arcana

$29.99 Aug 14, 2026

According to his first biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach possessed an extraordinary ability to combine organ stops in a wholly unusual manner, astonishing the organists and organ builders of his time. However, very few accounts survive of how he actually made these timbral choices. A valuable source of information is the Harmonische Seelenlust by Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1733-36), a large collection of chorale preludes that displays striking points of contact with the third part of the Clavier-ubung (1739) - to the point of appearing almost as a model for it - and includes registrations so original and bold as to recall the style described by Forkel. Having already distinguished himself with the award-winning Bach Mirrored (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik), organist Maurizio Croci draws on the timbral resources of the historic Treutmann organ at Grauhof (1737) to offer us a fresh reading of Bach's masterpiece which, taking inspiration from Kauffmann's registrations, places registration at the centre of expressive interpretation and proposes a renewed listening perspective.

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J. S. Bach: Dritter Theil der Clavier Ubung
Arcana Aug 2026
CD
$29.99

Mix & Match

Bach: Cantatas, BWV 12 & 147

Oehms Classics

$7.49 ~~$14.99~~ Save 50% Jan 29, 2013

In 2005, Thomas Gropper founded vocal ensemble Arcis Vocalists. Today the group consists of 50 singers who are actively engaged in the Bavarian and Munich concert scene. Following their debut album of Cantatas BWV 131 and 182, they now present Cantatas BWZ 12 and BWV 147.

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Bach: Cantatas, BWV 12 & 147
Oehms Classics Jan 2013
CD
~~$14.99~~ $7.49

Bach: Cantatas Vol 2 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan

BIS

$21.99 Feb 01, 1996

My enthusiasm for Volume 1 in the Bach Collegium Japan's cycle of Bach's cantatas continues here in a program that includes a work (BWV 131) based on conductor Masaaki Suzuki's favorite psalm, number 130. (In the notes to the first volume Suzuki candidly declares how important his Christian convictions are to his interpretations, and describes his relationship to Bach as "fellows in faith"). Though thematically based on the depths and multitudes of sin, Bach's settings here are not entirely solemn--nor are Suzuki's spirited renderings. The opening selection, Gott ist mein König, begins with a striking choral "Gott!" followed by enough resounding brass and percussion to simultaneously excite the layman and instill joyous consolation among the faithful. Bass Peter Kooy's more somber though equally compelling fourth-movement aria "Tag und Nacht ist dein" couldn't be more lovely; as the singer muses over God's omniscient reach, he's partnered by a lingering melody that anticipates the composer's famous Sinfonia in C. Likewise countertenor Yoshikazu Mera shines in his brief aria "Durch mächtige Kraft", accompanied only by a trio of trumpet, organ, and timpani.

Arguably one of Bach's most angst-ridden cantatas, Aus der Tiefe rufe ich Herr, zu dir gets a reading that equals if not surpasses Günther Ramin's legendary 1952 account (a statement heretofore unimaginable). Though nearly as dramatically slow in tempo as Ramin, Suzuki often subtly mutes the choir, which heightens the overall impression of humility, misery, despair, and lifelong repentance. Also unlike Ramin, who unfortunately had only less-than-accurate editions at his disposal, Suzuki includes an additional soprano (Midori Suzuki) whose sublime laments beautifully complement Kooy's second-movement aria.

From Bach's so-called "Mühlhausen period" (where he held the post of organist at Mühlhausen's Church of St. Blasius) his Actus Tragicus funeral cantata (Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit) remains his most popular and oft-recorded work. While long-standing favorite recordings include such diverse readings as Karl Richter's grand Munich Bach Orchestra modern-instrument performance and the Collegium Aureum's much more intimate original-instrument account, Suzuki again successfully combines the best of both approaches. The famed opening instrumental sonatina couldn't be more graceful and appropriately suggestive of another world. As well, tenor Gerd Türk and countertenor Yoshikazu Mera deliver exceptionally lovely performances, particularly in the third-movement choral. This Actus Tragicus surely is one of the best, if not the best currently available (both of the recordings mentioned above are scarce imports). BIS again complements Suzuki's achievement with state-of-the-art sonics and engaging and informative booklet notes by Suzuki and Tadashi Isoyama. Highly recommended. [3/5/2003]
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

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Bach: Cantatas Vol 2 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS Feb 1996
CD
$21.99

Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Akkordeon / Miki

BIS

SACD

$21.99 May 05, 2017

Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier has been called "The Old Testament" of the piano literature and presents, in more ways than one, a pinnacle to be climbed by pianists and harpsichordists alike. As a leading accordion player with an astonishingly wide-ranging repertoire, Mie Miki has now accepted the challenge, selecting twelve of the 48 pairs of preludes and fugues. For BIS Mie Miki has previously recorded Bach's Italian Concerto, and as she did then, she performs the music from the original keyboard score without making any alterations to facilitate the transition to the accordion. The result is ear-opening - the accordion's capacity for sustained notes brings out Bach's fugal counterpoint, while the fast and light action of the instrument lends a particular fleetness to the preludes.

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Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Akkordeon / Miki
BIS May 2017
SACD
$21.99

Schreker, F.: Kleine Suite / Zieritz, G. Von: Prelude and Fu
Thorofon Oct 1988
CD
$24.99

Wagner: Overtures & Preludes
Archipel Jan 2012
CD
$10.99

Suder: Dona Nobis Pacem & Symphonic Music / Koch, Albert, Thuringia Philharmonic Suhl

Haenssler Classic

$20.99 Oct 06, 2023

Joseph Suder´s great festival mass complements the series of great sacred works from Bach to Bruckner in which tonal expressive means exhibit what are in polyphonic and in part homophonic traits. Suder´s work offers, in keeping with his stylistic will, a synthesis of strict contrapuntal thought with what would have to be termed a Romantic tone coloration, a combination of clear construction with eminent expressive power in the form of an intelligible musical language. Joseph Suder (1892 – 1980), active in Munich from 1911 on, did not bequeath a very extensive symphonic oeuvre to posterity. He composed his first major work of this type, the Chamber Symphony in A major, in 1925, and it was this work that brougth him his first international successes. In it he also formulated an important as well as interesting principle of design that would play a decisive role in almost all his later major works: the synthesis.

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Suder: Dona Nobis Pacem & Symphonic Music / Koch, Albert, Thuringia Philharmonic Suhl
Haenssler Classic Oct 2023
CD
$20.99

Christmas Oratorios & Concertos - Bach & Beyond

Haenssler Classic

$16.49 ~~$32.99~~ Save 50% Oct 07, 2022

The importance of Christmas inspired many composers to write music for the occasion, some designed to be performed in church services, others for concert or secular celebration. This 6 album set combines oratorios and concertos by Schütz, Telemann, Bach, Corelli, Rinck, Saint-Saëns, Herzogenberg, Clarke, Nicolai. Some of the finest artists and ensembles in the Hanssler catalog are showcased on these recordings, including Iona Brown, Joachim Held, Hannoversche Hofkapelle, Collegium vocale Siegen, Monteverdi-Orchester Munchen, Oregon Bach Festival Chamber Orchestra, and many more.

REVIEWS:

Christmas has inspired many composers to compose magnificent music, on the one hand for church services and on the other hand for festive concerts outside the church. This masterful box with 6 CDs contains oratorios and concertos by Schütz, Telemann, Bach, Corelli, Rinck, Saint-Saëns, Herzogenberg and Clarke, performed by some of the best artists and ensembles in the Hänssler catalogue, including Iona Brown, Joachim Held, Hannoversche Hofkapelle, Collegium vocale Siegen, Monteverdi-Orchester Munchen, and the Oregon Bach Festival Chamber Orchestra.

-- Stretto

As Christmas approaches, an avalanche of familiar Christmas tunes rumbles in the distance. Even in the case of large-scale Christmas compositions, the same works seem to be repeated too often, but Hänssler's six-disc box set reminds us that the repertoire is much wider.

The greatest work is Heinrich von Herzogenberg's (1842–1900) idyllic oratorio "The Birth of Christ" (1894), which spreads the event into a spectacle borrowing familiar and lesser-known Christmas carols based on the Old Testament and the Gospel of Luke. Herzogenberg, who was one of Brahms's supporters, represents full Romanticism at its tenderest, sometimes generously sweet. Schütz's "A Christmas Story" is more familiar and would work better as a period-style performance. Arnold Bruckhorst's (c. 1675–c. 1725) twenty-minute "Christmas History" is, on the other hand, a new acquaintance, as is Christian Heinrich Rinck's (1770–1846) even shorter classic Romantic Christmas Cantata. All performances are homely and competent, without causing great artistic tremors. Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio can be found in more sophisticated recordings, but why, for example, Otto Nicolai's charming Christmas Overture is never heard in concerts?

Telemann's big and handsome oratorio Heilig, heilig, Heilig ist Gott (1747) is useless to look for elsewhere. The documentation only includes lists of works and performance information.

-- Rondo Classic

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Christmas Oratorios & Concertos - Bach & Beyond
Haenssler Classic Oct 2022
CD
~~$32.99~~ $16.49

Duruflé: Sacred Choral & Organ Works Vol 1 / Piquemal, Et Al
Naxos Jun 1995
CD
$19.99

Distler, H.: Deutsche Choralmesse / Aus Dem Jahrkreis / Herz
Thorofon Jun 2008
CD
$24.99

O schone Nacht: Romantic Choral Music / Alber, Orpheus Vokalensemble

Carus

$15.99 ~~$20.99~~ Save 25% Jul 31, 2020

O charming night – like a common thread, the romantic motifs of yearning for peace, farewell to lovers and mystical experiences of nature run through the works in this recording. With particular sensitivity and subtle harmonic effects, Rheinberger brings the world of elves and mermaids to life. Brahms’s “charming night,” moonlit and enhanced by the song of the nightingale, serves as the backdrop for an implied amorous adventure. And Herzogenberg’s Notturnos evoke an entirely otherworldly reverie. The Orpheus Vokalensemble, consisting of singers from all over the world, was founded in 2005 as the Landesakademie Ochsenhausen’s professional chamber choir. Since then, the ensemble has grown into a significant chamber choir enjoying international respect, working with renowned choral conductors such as Michael Alber, Gunnar Eriksson, Gary Graden, Florian Helgath, Bo Holten and others. The musical and stylistic spectrum of the ensemble is documented by further artistic partners such as Ida Bieler, Konrad Elser, Jürgen Essl, Edita Gruberová, Dieter Ilg, Sibylla Rubens, the Stenzl Piano Duo, Ars Antiqua Austria, Concerto Köln, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden/Freiburg and many more.

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O schone Nacht: Romantic Choral Music / Alber, Orpheus Vokalensemble
Carus Jul 2020
CD
~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Bach: Cantatas - Aus Der Tiefen, Himmelskonig Sei Willkommen / Gropper, Jurda, Kiener, Schlecht

Oehms Classics

$14.99 Feb 22, 2011

BACH Cantatas: No. 131 2,3; No. 182 1-3 • Thomas Gropper (cond); 1 Regine Jurda (alt); 2 Maximiian Kiener (ten); 3 Franz Schlecht (bs); Arsis Vocalists Munich; L’Arpa Festante; (period instruments) • OEHMS OC 783 (47:23 Text, no Translations)

Bach’s Cantata 131 may have been his first ever, composed at Mühlhausen in 1707 or 1708. We can hear in it the youthful composer remaining true to his German roots, but stretching his wings, experimenting with an episodic, through-composed structure, and succeeding brilliantly. The experiment, however, was short-lived. By the time Bach moved to Weimar in 1714, he was settling on a new format, which he would refine and perfect in later years: a succession of individual movements, usually including an elaborate choral number, a group of solo pieces, and an unadorned setting of the relevant chorale. A heightened awareness of international trends surfaced in French overtures and Italianate recitatives and da capo arias. Cantata 182 was Bach’s first for Weimar.

Both of these early cantatas on this disc are likely candidates for chamber-sized performances, but they are sung here by a chorus of about 50 singers. Thomas Gropper’s temperate direction serves the music well. The choral singing is nicely burnished and admirably precise. The first chorus of No. 182 seemed to lose a bit of its forward momentum, but order is quickly restored and the cantata (and the disc) ends well. The soloists are similarly effective. One can get a vague sense of meandering in the bass aria of BWV 182, but the overall impression is positive. The featured (but unnamed) wind soloists—the oboe in No. 131 and the recorder in No. 182—are especially fine, more reasons to give the disc your consideration. In all, an excellent 131; a good 182.

FANFARE: George Chien

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Bach: Cantatas - Aus Der Tiefen, Himmelskonig Sei Willkommen / Gropper, Jurda, Kiener, Schlecht
Oehms Classics Feb 2011
CD
$14.99

Choeurs de l'Opera de Vienne - Meistersinger & Other Great Choruses / Bauer-Theussl
Sony Masterworks Apr 2011
CD
$17.99

Vocal Recital: Wunderlich, Fritz - KAISER, E. / GEORGY-ENGEL
Profil May 2009
CD
$12.99

Mendelssohn: Sacred Choral Music [14 CD] / Bernius, Stuttgart Chamber Choir

Carus

$87.99 Jul 08, 2022

This 14-album box contains all the recordings of the complete sacred vocal music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with the Kammerchor Stuttgart under the direction of Frieder Bernius. The complete recording on the CARUS label, which took more than two decades to complete, was highly praised by the press and won many awards. Now Bernius' masterful interpretations, which unfold Mendelssohn's sense of cantabile melody and differentiated harmony in a high sound culture and colorful, transparent diction, are available in a complete set.

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Mendelssohn: Sacred Choral Music [14 CD] / Bernius, Stuttgart Chamber Choir
Carus Jul 2022
CD
$87.99

Den Bosch Choirbooks, Vol. 1 / Pratensis

Challenge Classics

$18.99 Jul 02, 2021

Music clearly fascinated the great Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516); his sketches and paintings are peppered with closely observed depictions of music-making and musical instruments. Bosch, a native of ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Duchy of Brabant, was a life-long brother of the city’s Brotherhood of Our Illustrious Lady, a large and prestigious organization for which sacred music was an essential and highly-valued part of its devotional life. Every Wednesday Bosch could gather with his Confraternity brothers in their opulent chapel in the church of St. John the Evangelist to celebrate a votive Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin. This recording aims to capture a sense of the devotional soundscape that Bosch experienced throughout his life as a member of this music-loving Marian brotherhood. Instead of the frightening cacophony conjured by the artist’s vision of Hell, we encounter here the joy and serenity of the weekly Marian votive Mass liturgy. We have chosen the Missa Cum jocunditate by Pierre de la Rue(c.1452-1518), who was not only the most renowned composer of the Habsburg-Burgundian court but also an external member of the brotherhood from the early 1490s until his death in 1518. Indeed, La Rue may well have had occasion to meet Bosch during these years. Cappella Pratensis sings from the original notation, reading from scale copies of the confraternity’s manuscripts of plainsong and polyphony, and adopts the Brabant pronunciation of Latin those singers surely employed. They also read together from one large music book, like the men portrayed in the Singers in the Egg sketch attributed to Bosch.

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Den Bosch Choirbooks, Vol. 1 / Pratensis
Challenge Classics Jul 2021
CD
$18.99

Bach: The Ascension Oratorio, Festive Cantatas / Funfgeld, Bach Festival Orchestra

Sono Luminus

$18.99 Jun 30, 1998

"The opening and closing choruses of the Ascension oratiorio contain some of Bach’s most irresistible, catchy music, and this chorus and orchestra really give it their all, from the brilliant trumpets and insistent syncopated rhythms to the invigorating choral singing...once you get into this Bethlehem Bach Choir production, it’s impossible not to like it."

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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Bach: The Ascension Oratorio, Festive Cantatas / Funfgeld, Bach Festival Orchestra
Sono Luminus Jun 1998
CD
$18.99