Kolner Akademie Willens - Christmas Cantatas 3 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Album Tracks 1. Erhöhet Die Tore Der Welt 2. Ja, Zion, Freue Dich! 3. Hosianna Davids Sonne 4. Du König Der Ehren, Jesu Christ 5. Kündlich Groß Ist Das Gottselige Geheimnis 6. Geheimnisvolle Worte 7. Der Sohn Des Vaters 8. Dies Geheimnis FÜHRT Und Treibt Uns 9. Gib Uns, O Jes 10. Siehe, Finsternis Bedecket Das Erdenreich 11. Der Hölle Macht 12. Sing Die Größte Aller Nächte 13. Wer Kann Des Herren Lieb Ermessen? 14. Ihr Armen Freuet Euch 15. Ich Lag in Tiefer Todesnacht 16. Ehre Sei Gott in Der Höhe 17. Beglückte Zeit 18. Jauchzet Itzt Mit Frohem Herzen 19. Wohlan, Es Hat Der Held 20. Heut Schleust Er Wieder Auf Die TÜR 21. Jauchze, Du Tochter Zion 22. Auf, Lasset Uns Der Höchsten Lieb 23. Gottlob, Das Himmelreich Ist Nah 24. Immanuel, Mein König 25. Tröstet Euch, Gefallne Sünder 26. Sei Mir Willkommen, Edler Gast

This album marks the recording premiere of four cantatas by Gottfried August Homilius for Advent and Christmas. Homilius was the number-one composer of Protestant church music during the second half of the eighteenth century and during his lifetime was regarded as »perhaps today's very best church composer. InchAfter his death the lexicographer Ernst Ludwig Gerber expressed the view that he was »without contradiction our greatest church composer.Inch Homilius' music already displays elements of early Classicism and the sensibility of the empfindsamer Stil, his cantata choruses are frequently homophonic and songlike in design, and polyphonic sections are rather rare. His cantatas composed around 1776 prove to be works of individual design and conception and attest to his mastery as a composer. Arias of great tonal beauty, the naturalness of their expression, and the dramatic suspense of the various numbers continue to fascinate listening audiences even today!

In 1677 Johann Schelle became the music director at the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, succeeding his teacher Sebastian Knupfer and preceding Johann Kuhnau in this post. His own pupils included important composers like Johann Christoph Graupner, Johann David Heinichen, Reinhard Keiser, Johann Theodor Roemhildt and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Schelle is known to have produced more than 180 compositions, of which unfortunately only 48 have survived. His importance lies mainly in his chorale cantatas and in the combination of Biblical texts and freely written sacred poetry he employed in his more advanced sacred concertos- an early form of what would later become the Lutheran church cantata. The present gathers together Schelle's known compositions for Advent and Christmas. In doing so it also sheds light on the musical role of the St. Thomas Choir in Leipzig's musical culture during the final third of the 17th century.