Des styles italiens novateurs comme l'opéra et l'oratorio, tous deux ayant pour base les mêmes concepts rhétoriques, se sont répandus très rapidement à travers toute l'Europe et c'est dans les régions de langue allemande que les modèles furent développés avec le plus d'ardeur. Le programme de ce CD Sanctum Desiderium est une soigneuse sélection de compositions allemandes du dix-septième siècle qui expriment un désir sacré en le traduisant aussi par des images musicales.

Hans Werner Henze's career is notable for his mastery of a broad range of idioms, from the post-Romantic lyricism of Cantata della fiaba estrema to the neo-classical delicacy of his chamber music to the brash modernism of Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natasha Ungeheuer. Voices, written in 1973, can be heard as a compendium of many of the types of music he had embraced.

There is no shortage of recordings of Schubert song highlights, but this one by tenor Ilker Arcayürek is a standout. Arcayürek is a little less exotic than he sounds; born in Istanbul, he is fully Austrian trained, and is an alumnus of the Vienna Mozart Boys' Choir. His German reveals no trace of an accent, and the strong point of his performance is natural text engagement. Arcayürek's performance, in fact, although he has moved to Britain and become a BBC 3 New Generation Artist, falls into a long Austrian-German tradition that prizes naturalness of phrasing and diction.