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5 CD + CD ROM of booklet notes and sung texts

CD 1: Lamentation

CD 2: Henry Purcell

CD 3: Evensong & Vespers at King's - Vespers for the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Evenson for Advent

CD 4: Sacred Choral Favourites

CD 5: Works by Rutter, Bernstein & Poulenc

15 CD + CD ROM.

A stunning 15 CD collection of some of the greatest sacred music ever written.

From the great Lamentations of Byrd, Tallis and Palestrina, the listener is taken on a remarkable spiritual journey through Bach’s great St Matthew Passion, Purcell’s moving and bleak funeral music for Queen Mary, and Handel radiant Messiah.

Pergolesi’s masterful setting of the Stabat Mater and Telemann’s Passions-Oratorium are also to be found here, along with Haydn’s Stabat Mater and his dark and intense masterpiece Die sieben letzen Worte, or The Seven Last Words of our Saviour from the Cross.

Finally, Allegri’s hauntingly beautiful Miserere opens this collection – a work that was copied from memory after one hearing by the child Mozart. Prior to that moment the work had only been heard in the Vatican.

Superb value with a CD-ROM containing a full tracklist, sung texts and translations and booklet notes.

First rate performances from leading choirs including Kings College and Clare College, Cambridge, and the Stuttgart Chamber Chorus.

All recordings are recent.

Just as much a part of Christmas as Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is a reworking of a collection of his secular festive cantatas to form a single larger work. It was first heard in Leipzig on Christmas Day 1734, and performed in six sections between Christmas Day and Epiphany 1735. Bach wrote similar oratorios for Easter and Ascension, and all re-use existing cantatas. For the oratorio versions however, it wasn’t just a case of cobbling the works together. Bach wrote much new music, especially the choruses, but the core of the work is taken from cantatas nos 213, 214 and 215.

Chorale preludes would have been a feature of any church service in Leipzig over the Christmas period, acting as interludes between the movements of the cantatas and oratorios. A selection of works for organ related to Christmas is included on the 10th CD of this Festive Bach box.

Recent recordings.

For lovers of Barock music - Bach in festive mood is particularly uplifting!

An original concept: the Orgelbüchlein BWV 599‐644 performed alternating the organ chorale with the same choral sung by a choir.

Bach wrote the chorales in the Orgelbüchlein as educational material, to teach how to treat a chorale in polyphonic writing, but as in most of his works, the didactic element is far surpassed by the spiritual content of these miniature masterworks. The alternation of the organ and sung chorale provides a fascinating insight into Bach different treatment of the same melody.

New recording with excellent performances by one of Italy’s most famous harpsichordists, Francesco Cera, and the Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera conducted by early music specialist Diego Fasolis.

For many, Johann Sebastian Bach is ‘the’ composer of the Baroque period, a master of harmony, counterpoint and genre. During his lifetime he was particularly renowned as a virtuoso organist, and his compositions for the instrument have formed the core repertory of any aspiring organist ever since. The content of the Orgelbüchlein – a selection of chorale preludes composed while Bach held the post of Ducal Organist at Weimar – includes several pieces that are considered to be among Sebastian’s finest works. There is evidence that they were written for ‘teaching the various ways of treating a chorale, and the use of the pedal’, but they also have a definite spirituality – the dedication reads: ‘To God Almighty in praise, to everyman for instruction’. The compositions divide into groups intended for use throughout the liturgical year, from Advent to Pentecost. Italian organist and harpsichordist Francesco Cera is a renowned interpreter of 17thcentury keyboard music. He has performed on historical organs throughout Europe, and has recorded four of J.S. Bach’s concertos for harpsichord as well as Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas, which he has also performed at the Flanders Festival. He is joined on the recording by the Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, directed by Diego Fasolis.

One of Bach’s most festive religious works, the Christmas Oratorio, celebrating Christ’s Nativity.

Performance based on Historic Music Practice, on authentic instruments.

The recording of Diego Fasolis was awarded numerous international record prizes, among which the prestigious Diapason’d Or.

Compiled from secular cantatas and first published in 1734, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is remarkable in that it was conceived to be performed in two churches over six feast days, across a two-week period. Gathering together suitable cantatas to form a larger work was not an unusual practice, and Bach’s Easter and Ascension Oratorios (BWV 249 and 11) are both compiled from secular cantatas. It is indeed possible that Bach had in mind recycling the cantatas into a larger work when he originally composed them.

The Christmas Oratorio was composed for the church year of 1734/5. A particular pattern of dates in this year meant that it could only be performed again during a church year with the same day and date sequence. During Bach’s term in office this only allowed 3 possible performances - in 1739/40, 1744/45 and 1745/46 - as a re-order is not possible.

The music of this recording is glorious late Bach. Composed after the St John and St Matthew Passions and the B minor Mass, his maturity as a composer is evident in both the structure of the work and the subtle orchestration and contrapuntal writing of the chorales.

Recording made in 2003.

Booklet notes and texts.

Period performance practice.

Bach’s Easter Oratorio (a re-working by Bach himself of a secular Cantata) is a substantial Cantata in eleven parts, in which the festive character of the Resurrection is caught in joyful trumpet fanfares in the first two instrumental Sinfonias.

Eloquent recitatives and intimate arias complete Bach’s musical celebration of Easter. Sung texts included.

A firm place for this powerful but somewhat neglected Oratorio in the MUSICA SACRA series!

Dedicated to one of the composer's most popular works, this release celebrates J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor -- a masterpiece of writing that ranks among the greatest liturgical settings in the history of music.

The composition was born out of the 'Kyrie' and 'Gloria' movements that Bach had originally dedicated to the Elector of Saxony (in the hope of securing an official title at his court). After his eventual move to Dresden, the composer decided to combine these with further, separately composed movements taken from the Ordinary -- namely a setting of the 'Symbolum Nicenum', a Sanctus from 1724 and parodies from earlier pieces that were rearranged as the 'Osanna', 'Benedictus', 'Agnus Dei' and 'Dona nobis pacem'.

From the use of opera techniques, as seen in the varied sequence of choruses and arias, to highly varied instrumentation and styles -- including the French overture arrangement of the Sanctus -- Bach created a monumental work that is rich in both polyphony and virtuosic display. It was a deliberately structured composition, one that differed to his usual practise of writing for an imminent performance and which is far too long for proper liturgical use.

Bach probably never got to hear the great Mass performed in its entirety, but numerous copies of the work dating from the 19th century point to its renaissance more than a century later. Featuring assured solo performances, strong chorus singing as well as meticulous playing by the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, this release comprises a worthy addition to the Brilliant Classics' choral library.

Other information:

-The importance of the Bach's B minor Mass is difficult to overestimate: some consider it the greatest, deepest, and most influential classical work of all history, certainly it is the most quintessential work of Bach, a summing up of his creative, human and religious powers, and a source of inspiration, solace and faith of humans of all ages, and ages to come.

- This famous recording, licensed from the Swiss label Arts, is based on the Historically Informed Performance Practice, and presents the best voices in this field: the celebrated Roberta Invernizzi, Lynn Dawson, Gloria Banditelli and the famous German tenor Christoph Prégardien.The Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca conducted by Diego Fasolis let their Mediterranean sun shine on this Catholic liturgical Mass by Nordic protestant Johann Sebastian Bach: an experience of universal power and beauty.

- Comprehensive booklet notes in German, with English translation.

- Complete sung texts and English translation available on www.brilliantclassics.com.

These 7 works comprise J.S Bach’s complete output of German motets – in stark contrast to his prolific cantata output of over 200 works.

German motets occupied a specific place in the canon of liturgical music in the 16 – 18 centuries. They were performed solely by the choir schools during services, the congregation remaining silent. Consequently, the writing is more complex than that found in works where the congregation could join in. It was customary for two motets to be sung at Sunday services, Vespers, weddings, funerals church induction ceremonies, inaugurations and university gatherings.

Bach’s works date from his time cantor at St Thomas’s church in Leipzig, where on of his duties was to provide music for minor ceremonies.

Period instrument performances.

Recording made in 2007.

Booklet notes and sung texts.

Upon popular demand available again: Bach’s complete Sacred Cantatas, newly compiled, on 50 CDs, an unbelievable bargain.

These recordings, produced for the Bach‐year 2000, feature a superb boys choir, the Holland Boys Choir, a tradition going back to the time of the composer. The Netherlands Bach Collegium consists of Dutch early music specialists playing period instruments. Conductor Pieter Jan Leusink puts his entire soul in these recordings of what one might call “the greatest and most humanly moving corpus of sacred music ever written”.

Reviewers around the world praised the set for its “characteristic performances, marked by a great sense of authencity, especially from the use of boy sopranos”. It sounds very much like it might have sounded in Bach’s time (Gramophone).

Written to exalt the glory of God and to facilitate Lutheran worship, Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred cantatas stand among the highest achievements of Western musical art. This acclaimed recording sees the works performed in their entirety by a stellar line‐up of musicians that includes the renowned Holland Boys’ Choir and period instrument ensemble Netherlands Bach Collegium. The cantatas are directed by Pieter van Leusink, one of Holland’s leading Bach experts. From the plaintive opening of Weinen, Kleinen, Sorgen, Sagen (‘Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing’) BWV12 to the triumphant D major chorus in Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg BWV149, the works traverse a wide range of themes and moods, having been written for a variety of occasions throughout the liturgical year.