Kuhnau: Weicht ihr Sorgen aus dem Hertzen

Johann Kuhnau was one of life’s polymaths—as well as being a composer he trained as a lawyer, spoke several languages, helped found Leipzig’s opera house, theorized about music and even found time to write a novel sending up the shortcomings of the contemporary music scene. Musically he’s the link between Schütz and Bach, but he was alive to many different stylistic traits as this selection of sacred music demonstrates. From the brilliantly brassy opening of Ihr Himmel jubilirt to the restrained intensity of Tristis est anima mea, it’s music invigorated at every turn by The King’s Consort.

Johann Kuhnau owes his fame today mainly to the fact that he was Bach's predecessor as cantor at St. Thomas's in Leipzig. The 17th and 18th centuries meet in Kuhnau's cantatas, where a heavily text-bound musical language following on from the Schütz tradition is combined with Italian melodies and a late-baroque spaciousness – a combination especially delightful to today's ears. Rounding off the CD are cantatas by Kuhnau’s close friend Vincenzo Albrici.