The crusaders' dilemma is clearly exemplified in the song Seigneur, saichies by Thibaut de Champagne. "He who does not leave at once for the land where Christ loved and died, and takes the cross … will hardly go to paradise" and yet in the words of another song by Thibaut "God, why did you create foreign countries? It has parted many lovers who have lost comfort of love and forgotten its joy." There was, though, a joy greater than this: "It is good to be God's servant, and not to be touched by danger or chance; Serve well and be rewarded well." (Conon de Bethune). It is still, even at a distance of 800 years very touching to read these words and to hear these songs; they retain a strong quality, which, in these performances, is captured very well.

This imaginatively-curated, generously-filled Christmas package is sure to find favor during this and future holiday seasons. Why? Because it packs in every conceivable carol, tune, choral work or song in timeless performances from the greatest artists in the world: singers of immense communicative gifts including Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming and Luciano Pavarotti to name but four. It truly offers something of every Christmas mind, spirit, and looks fantastic.

Like the Occitan troubadours and the trouvères of northern France, the Minnesänger celebrated courtly love and gave medieval German its letters of nobility. These "singers of love" — Minne is the old German word for love — thus perpetuated a poetic and musical tradition that had begun nearly two centuries earlier in Occitania. The Minnesänger, generally of noble and knightly blood, gradually emancipated themselves from their French models and developed their own styles and forms during the 13th century.

After FAUN's last five albums won gold and platinum awards as well as placings in the Top 5 of the German album charts, with „PAGAN“, the exceptional formation returns to its musical roots…

If you could only have two Christmas CDs, Kathleen Battle's "A Christmas Celebration" would definitely be one (and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" would be the other.)While Battle has been known to be a temperamental diva (leading to a quasi-banishment from operatic roles), her pretty, soaring soprano is without peer. So good is her voice that I would consider several of the cuts on this disc to be definitive performances, not only of Battle's repertoire, but of all performances ever of that song. Case in point would be her rendition of Gounod's "Ave Maria". Haunting and stunning at the same time, it's as if the angel itself were singing.

In a Christmas album that is a gift itself, Jonas Kaufmann the most acclaimed operatic tenor of the age echoes his own holiday memories and joys with It s Christmas!, celebrating the most festive time of the year with a unique selection of beloved songs and carols. This uniquely rich and diverse holiday album features 40 favorites that reflect the many facets of Christmas, from ancient Christian hymns to contemporary pop classics.

Famous as its title has become through Carl Orff's work of the same name, the original Carmina burana—a German manuscript collection of mostly secular songs, probably compiled in the early thirteenth century—is all but unknown to modern listeners. That it should be so is hardly surprising, since many of the pieces in the manuscript pose formidable editorial problems (inasmuch as they can be deciphered at all), and since virtually nothing is known about the manner in which they would have been performed and accompanied, nor about the circumstances under which they would have been heard.

The Carmina Burana is the most famous of all treasuries of medieval Latin and Middle High German poetry, named after the Bavarian monastery where it was compiled and preserved. It is best known today for Carl Orff's hour-long selection from it's rich collection of love lyrics, student songs and religious poetry written in Latin and old German. During the 1960s and 70s a few early-music ensembles made more or less successful efforts to capture the unique mix of secular and sacred idioms brought together by the original manuscripts.

7 is the seventh studio album by the German medieval rock band In Extremo. In addition to self-written works, 7 also contains old poems and pieces. In contrast to its predecessor Sünder ohne Reins, which included Rammstein bonds, 7 was rockier and more stylistically diverse.

Sünder ohne Zügel is the third folk metal album by the German band In Extremo. It was released in 2001 by Island Records.

With their first official rock album, Berlin's In Extremo have developed from an insider tip to one of the most popular metal acts in Germany. Wake up the dead! is a spontaneous, crisp and, above all, unprecedented record in this form. Guitars complement each other seamlessly with three bagpipes, brute drumming is in harmony with tender, medieval songs. In Extremo, traditional melodies mix with their own ideas and add robust rock to the original sounds. And so they sing their old tunes in old Norwegian, old French, Spanish, Latin, old German and German. The debut album includes the pieces "Ai Vis Lo Lop", "Totus Floreo" and "Villeman og Magnhild", which are played regularly by traveling musicians at medieval markets. The real highlights, however, are the "Palestinian Song", one of the oldest, traditional pieces in human history (in a gripping, cracking metal version) as well as the worn, highly independent "Before full bowls". In short: if you want to have a say in medieval music, you have to get this long player.

Hameln is the second acoustic album of the German folk-metal band In Extremo, consisting entirely of medieval folk motives.The name of the album, refers to the German city of Hameln, as well as the famous legend of the Pied Piper of Hameln, who saved the city from hordes of rats, however, not having received the promised payment from the avaricious burgomaster, took all the children out of the city under cover of night. after which no one has ever seen them. Characteristically, the orginal cover is adorned with a photograph of a dead rat found in the basement of a Berlin house. Like Die Goldene, Hameln was re-recorded in 2006 and released in a new format, with improved sound, different cover art and two bonus tracks.

In Extremo is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments (such as bagpipes, harp, hurdy-gurdy and shawm). Versions of well-known traditional/medieval ballads make up the main part of their repertoire, but the band has written an increasing share of original material in recent years. Their own material is written in German, whilst the traditional songs and cover songs are in a variety of languages. In August 1996, they began work on the first In Extremo album, which already contained two tracks of the new rock project. Because the album had no official name, it became known as Gold because of the golden cover. In February 1997, like the single Der Galgen (engl. "The Gallows"), it quickly sold out in Medieval markets. The 2006 reissue, Die Goldene, contains two acoustic bonus tracks, including an alternate version of Villeman og Manhild.

This year the Bremen Cathedral Choir is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and with its director of many years, Wolfgang Helbich, it also has certainly enjoyed a »musical marriage« of a rare kind. And then there is the splendid Bremen tradition that has been observed for some eighty years now: the Christmas song concert in St. Peter’s Cathedral so very dear to the hearts of the Bremen public. Since cpo, as a label with its home in Northern Germany, has long maintained close ties to the Hansa city (cf. Radio Bremen, Weser-Renaissance Bremen, and not least Helbich himself), it seemed to us to be high time to document this event full of the Christmas spirit for the pleasure of a wider listening audience. Everything that lends the Christmas season its musical magic is represented in traditional arrangements, from Adeste Fideles to Vom Himmel hoch.

A beautifully-packaged 50-disc box set, released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, one of the most important and adventurous early music labels. The set contains 50 classic recordings of baroque and ancient music, chosen to represent the breadth of this huge and varied catalogue and each disc is slip-cased with artwork replicating the original CD or LP artwork.