The Passio secundum Joannem or St John Passion[a] (German: Johannes-Passion), BWV 245, is a Passion or oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, the earliest of the surviving Passions by Bach. It was written during his first year as director of church music in Leipzig and was first performed on 7 April 1724, at Good Friday Vespers at the St. Nicholas Church.

Four years have passed since the release of Reinhard Mey's last album.

Eberhard Kummer was an Austrian concert singer, lawyer and an expert of medieval music from Vienna. Kummer was born in Krems an der Donau. He played the hurdy-gurdy, the harp and the guitar, and made important contribution to the restoration of medieval and the Austrian folksong. He received training as a classical bass-baritone. After an initial career as classical singer, he gradually specialized in restoring traditional Austrian folksongs and original medieval music from Europe, such as the German epic Nibelungenlied or medieval Minnelieder.

Erich J. Wolff’s name will be unfamiliar to many but in the 1920s an authoritative reference book on popular art song ranked his compositions fourth, behind Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. The first volume in this series of Wolff’s Complete Songs introduces a composer of astonishing gifts whose Romanticism is as daring as his formal sophistication. Wolff’s songs are lyrical, serene and full of melodic beauty, coupled with piano writing that is both virtuosic and atmospheric.

In a diary entry from the year 1827, Robert Schumann writes: Solitude is the intimate encounter with oneself, […], it is an active, thoughtful, creative tranquility, the active state of the soul amidst the body's passivity. - Solitude is the nursemaid of all great spirits, the mother of heroes, the companion of the poet, the friend of the arts.

A musical journey through Renaissance Europe via pieces that were highly popular and whose melodies were reused and varied by some of the best composers of the time.

Hailed by the international music press and highly praised by music connoisseurs, the recordings of Bach’s entire body of vocal music made by the Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ), its conductor Masaaki Suzuki and numerous prestigious soloists, many of whom have remained remarkably loyal to the undertaking from the outset, are here brought together to form the only complete set of these works in high-resolution format.

One of the key German composers before Bach with more than 500 surviving individual pieces, Heinrich Schutz wrote mainly church music, and is credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque. Although he lived most of his long life in Germany, in his twenties Schutz made two visits to Venice.

“The Wagner Project” was recorded at the KammerMusikKöln’s “10+1” anniversary concert under the motto of Richard Wagner. With this album the ensemble, consisting of 15 instrumentalist and vocal soloist soprano Kathrin Zukowski, presents arrangements for chamber music ensemble of several rarities by the composer. Among other pieces, it contains the world premiere of Wagner’s extremely rarely performed French Songs in an arrangement commissioned from Simone Fontanelli coupled with the second public performance of Fontanelli’s arrangement of Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, a further commission by KammerMusikKöln. In addition, Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is presented, in the composer’s own chamber music arrangement, a particularly gratifying piece for small ensemble.

SOMM Recordings honours Franz Schmidt, one of the great symphonic composers of the 20th century, on the 150th anniversary of his birth with this double-disc set featuring two of his masterworks. Revered in his day in his native Austria as the nation’s leading composer and an elite teacher, cellist and pianist, his name will not be known to many. This is due, at least in part, to a perceived association with the Third Reich (against which there is ample evidence). This first release on CD of two premiere recordings, meticulously produced and restored by Lani Spahr, showcases Schmidt’s unique harmonic language, exceptional contrapuntal skill and mastery of form, qualities which prompted Hans Pfitzner to call Schmidt’s Symphony No. 4 “nearer perfection than Bruckner, more honest than Richard Strauss and more original than Reger”.

The 18th century had a dynamic musical scene in which much experimentation went alongside respect for accepted traditions. A wide range of hybrid forms emerged in the wake of the French dance suite and the new Italian solo sonata: not only sonatas with divergent forms and suites in which French character titles suddenly gave way to Italian tempo indications, but also everything in between. Korneel Bernolet here presents an anthology of European 'compiled' sonatas in the form of or derived from suites, alongside contrasting compositions that sought the true sonata form. He plays the Joannes Daniel Dulcken magisterial 1747 single-keyboard harpsichord, whose ambassador and titular player he is.

This album features the works of German Romantic composer Max Reger by the Woergas Ensemble, which has made numerous rediscoveries in medieval and Renaissance polyphonic music over the past 50 years. Led by choral work specialist Paul van Nervel, the ensemble departs from the usual repertoire of ancient music to explore Reger's vocal music. Max Reger (1873-1916) is a composer best known for his symphonies and organ works, but his vocal music has been largely ignored.

Vox Luminis has teamed up with the Freiburger Barockorchester again, and together they celebrate music for Ascension Day. This topic inspired great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, four of whose Ascension cantatas have been preserved. The festive and colourful Cantata BWV 128 was composed towards the end of Bach’s second year in Leipzig. The Ascension Oratorio BWV 11 was written for larger forces and ends with a triumphant chorus. In the case of Georg Philipp Telemann, more than thirty cantatas for Ascension Day alone have survived. The cantata Ich fahre auf zu meinem Vater (I ascend unto my Father) was composed in 1721 and receives its world premiere recording here. Lionel Meunier’s ensemble and the FBO give a fervent rendering of this captivating music with its texts focusing on the afterlife.

The Night is The Night is the ambitious follow-up to singer, pianist and composer Rotem Geffen's seminal debut You Guard the Key. For this new recording she's been collaborating with producer Alex Zethson (keyboardist with Sven Wunder, Mariam the Believer, Goran Kajfes Tropiques, Angles 9, Fire! Orchestra) and co-producer/mixing engineer Anton Toorell (Dammit I'm Mad, Invader Ace), and together with some of Stockholm's finest musicians they've created an irresistible masterpiece.

Although few of Eduard Erdmann’s Lieder from the years up to 1918 were published, they occupy an important place in the public perception of the young composer. The influence on the impulsive young composer of his role models Schumann and Brahms, Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss, cannot be denied – and yet his songs also point to something new. It is to be regretted that a number of Erdmann’s early Lieder, quoted in an undated handwritten list (“12 Lieder by various authors”), have been lost or destroyed.