Kuhnau & Albrici: Soprano Cantatas

Steud, Barbara Christina

CPO 777 531-2

Johann Kuhnau owes his fame today mainly to the fact that he was Bach's predecessor as cantor at St. Thomas's in Leipzig. Of his voluminous output, the Biblical Sonatas for clavier are still popular today. The 350th anniversary of his birth gives us an opportunity to look at some of his less-known compositions: the sacred concertos and cantatas for solo soprano. The 17th and 18th centuries meet in Kuhnau's cantatas, where a heavily text-bound musical language proceeding from the Schütz tradition is combined with Italianate melodies and a late-baroque spaciousness – a combination especially delightful to today's ears. Kuhnau's compositions were much loved and widely known throughout central Germany. Rounding off the CD are cantatas by his close friend Vincenzo Albrici, the head of Dresden's court chapel.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

CPO

02-11-2010

761203753123