Mendelssohn: Christus

Award-winning choral group Accentus and its musical director Laurence Equilbey are joined on this new recording of some of Felix Mendelssohn’s sacred choral works by one of the most acclaimed sopranos of recent years, Sandrine Piau. The disc also features tenor Robert Getchell, baritone Markus Butter, and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. The main works are the unfinished oratorio Christus, and the cantatas O Haupt Voll Blut und Wunden and Vom Himmel Hoch.

Founded by its current director Laurence Equilbey, Accentus is a professional chamber choir which regularly appears in leading concert halls and festivals around the world. The group collaborates regularly with prestigious conductors and orchestras, notably Pierre Boulez, Christoph Eschenbach, the Orchestre de Paris, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Concerto Köln, and Akademie für Alte Musik. The group’s recordings which include the best seller ‘Transcriptions’, Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, Fauré’s Requiem, and ‘Strauss a cappella’ have received many awards from the international press. Accentus records exclusively for Naïve, and the group’s most recent recording for the label features Rachmaninov’s two great sacred works, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, and Vespers.

Christus is the title given by the Mendelssohn’s brother Paul to fragments of an unfinished oratorio by Felix that was first published posthumously as his Op. 97. The completed portions include a tenor recitative relating Christ's birth, two choruses, ‘Where is the newborn’, and ‘There Shall a Star from Jacob Shine Forth’, and a passion section ending with another chorale, ‘O Welt, sieh' hier dein Leben’.

The male choral ensemble Camerata Musica Limburg was founded in 1999. The ensemble has devoted itself to presenting to the public outstanding performances of unknown male choir repertoire.

The archive of the Berlin Sing-Akademie was long believed to be lost after World War II but was returned from Kiev in 2001. This priceless source of information on Berlin’s 18th century musical history includes cantatas by C P E Bach, Graun and Agricola which have now been issued in world premiere recordings.

Carus’s complete recording with Frieder Bernius and the Kammerchor Stuttgart of Felix Mendelssohn’s sacred choral works represents a magnificent act of interpretation and editing. A better recording can hardly be imagined. After the release of a box set with Mendelssohn's smaller sacred choral works in 2012, Carus now presents all of Mendelssohn's oratorios, "St.Paul" and "Elijah" aswell as the unfinished oratorio "Christus" in a box set of 4CDs at the special price of 4 for the price of 2.