Johann Kuhnau's musical language was diverse, ranging from 17th-century sacred arias to Neumeister-style church cantatas, challenging the historical perception of him as a backward-looking composer.
Instruments
The organ used for this recording in St. George's Church in Rötha was built in 1718 by the famous organ builder Gottfried Silbermann and his journeyman Zacharias Hildebrand, and was approved by Johann Kuhnau himself in 1721.
Composer Biography
Despite his prolific output, only a fraction of Johann Kuhnau's church music, estimated to have quantitatively outstripped that of his successor Johann Sebastian Bach, has survived.
Interpretation
The vocal ensemble Opella Musica, whose name means 'small endeavour', aims to perform magnificent Baroque music with small forces to achieve transparent textures.
Recording & Production
The renowned publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel is collaborating on this project by publishing Kuhnau's complete extant cantata oeuvre in critical editions, with the ensemble's countertenor, David Erler, serving as editor.
Cultural Impact
Johann Kuhnau, a composer who served as cantor at St. Thomas's in Leipzig before Johann Sebastian Bach, was often overlooked and underestimated as merely Bach's predecessor.
Composition History
This recording is part of a larger project by Opella Musica and camerata lipsiensis to record Johann Kuhnau's complete surviving vocal works by 2022, marking the 300th anniversary of his death.
