Complete Sacred Works, Vol. 2

Featuring

Gregor Meyer
Heidi Maria Taubert
David Erler
Tobias Hunger
Friedemann Klos
Camerata Lipsiensis

Opella Musica
Johann Kuhnau

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

Johann Kuhnau, the composer, served as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig for 21 years, a position later held by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Critical Reception

Kuhnau was once called a 'Musical Horribilicribrifax' by Johann David Heinichen, a former student, who dismissed Kuhnau's compositional ideals as 'mouldy and superfluous rules'.

Composition History

Kuhnau's extensive body of musical works, which likely surpassed that of his successor J.S. Bach in quantity, has largely been lost, with only about 30 'church pieces' surviving.

Instruments

The organ in St. George's Church, built by Gottfried Silbermann and Zacharias Hildebrand, was inspected and approved by Johann Kuhnau and Gottfried Ernst Pestel in 1721.

Recording & Production

This album is part of a complete recording project of Johann Kuhnau's surviving sacred works, aiming to correct his historical image and make his music accessible.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Kuhnau's musical language is stylistically diverse, ranging from 17th-century sacred arias to experimental hybrid forms and church cantatas, challenging the view of him as a backward-looking composer.

Historical Context

Kuhnau engaged in feuds with younger, innovative Leipzig musicians like Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann David Heinichen, and Johann Friedrich Fasch, primarily to restore the Thomaskantor's dominant position in Leipzig's music life.