Balthasar Erben, born in Danzig in 1626, was a cosmopolitan. When he applied for the position of Kapellmeister at the main church of St. Mary in his home town at the age of 27, the council granted him a generous grant so that he could "look around the world and perfect himself as a composer". Erben was on the road in Europe for five years and visited all the centers of musical culture up to Rome.

This recording by the Swiss soprano Franziska Heinzen, accompanied by the pianist Benjamin Mead, is on the one hand a declaration of love to Franziska Heinzen's home canton of Valais, and on the other hand a homage to the art of Swiss song: the starting point is the song cycle "Lieder us um Tal" (1981) by Eugen Meier on Valais German poems by Hannes Taugwalder (1910-2007), which is thematically expanded with selected songs by Swiss composers of the last two centuries.

Bach contemporaries such as Jan Zelenka (1679-1745) and Johann Pisendel (1687-1755), both of whom spent most of their creative lives at the Dresden court, are enjoying a well-deserved period of “discovery”–and so is Johann Schein (1586-1630), a less-interesting contemporary of Bach’s most illustrious predecessor, Heinrich Schütz, who preceded Bach as Kantor in Leipzig by a little more than a century. Schein’s primary claim to importance is his incorporation of Italian madrigal style into Lutheran church music. But it’s also clear that he was influenced by the big block-chord sound and antiphonal choir scoring favored by Gabrieli and similarly employed by Schütz.

Drei Dinge sind im Leben sicher: der Tod, die Steuern und die Gewissheit, dass sich Rock-Bands mit deutschen Texten immer wieder aufs Neue in Sachen Peinlichkeit selbst übertreffen. Letzteres kann mit ACHTUNG MENSCH! begründet in Frage gestellt werden – noch zermürbendere Lyrik ist schließlich nur schwer vorstellbar –, doch die Verzweiflung ist angesichts der unsäglich hochfrequenten Phrasendrescherei gewiss. Misanthropische Küchenpsychologie (‘Achtung Mensch’) trifft auf Pseudolebensweisheiten (‘Loch in der Mauer’), vorzugsweise mit reichlich tanzbaren Rhythmen, die den Lyrics das letzte Quäntchen Ernsthaftigkeit rauben. Dazwischen liebäugeln Tanzwut mit elektronischen Momenten oder kopieren dummdreist und krampfhaft Rammstein in Intonation wie Phrasierung (‘Alles klar’, ‘Leichen im Keller’).

Christa Ludwig was a German dramatic mezzo-soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, Lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses and passions, and solos contained in symphonic literature. Her career spanned from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. She is widely recognised as one of the most significant and distinguished singers of the 20th century.