On the occasion of Early Music Day and the 340th birth anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vox Luminis is pleased to announce the digital reissue of the album Bach: Kantaten released in 2019 by Ricercar and awarded a Choice Recording by BBC Music Magazine and an Editor’s Choice by Gramophone.

This new edition is enriched with three additional compositions by the Bach family: Kyrie for 6 by Heinrich Bach, Liebster Jesu, hör mein Flehen by Johann Michael Bach, and Siehe wie fein und lieblich ist by Georg Christoph Bach.

These three compositions, recorded in 2024, will also be included in the complete collection of works by the ancestors of Johann Sebastian Bach, soon to be published by Ricercar.

The digital reissue of Bach: Kantaten is available on all streaming platforms.

Outhere Music and Vox Luminis celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ensemble of Lionel Meunier with the release of a boxed set of the recordings made by the ensemble for Ricercar, Alpha Classics and Ramée between 2007 and 2023.

With over twenty hours of music to enjoy, highlights include recordings such as Musicalische Exequien by Schütz which won Gramophone’s prestigious Recording of the Year in 2012, and Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott which won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Choral Award, as well as revelatory readings of Purcell’s King Arthur, Biber’s Requiem in F minor and Handel’s Dixit Dominus.

With numerous Diapasons d’Or, the 2020 Caecilia Prize and several Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik accolades to its name, discover the unique sound and exceptional legacy of Vox Luminis.

A collector’s box set of 21 CDs just in time for the holiday season!

Click here to order your copy.

Heinrich Schütz continued to set himself challenges throughout his long career. Of all the genres of sacred music that he undertook, the oratorio offers us his most contrasting ideas. His Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi (1664) is in many respects the model for the genre that would later be employed by the musicians of Johann Sebastian Bach’s generation; the score that Vox Luminis use for this recording has been reconstructed from manuscript sources in the Düben Collection in Uppsala.

The album is completed with a number of particularly festive motets for the Christmas period by Heinrich Schütz and his illustrious contemporary Andreas Hammerschmidt.

Want to know more about what goes on behind the scenes of this new album? Lionel Meunier gives you all the details in this video.

Discover it in full on your favourite platform via this link.

Musikfest Bremen Atelier brings world-renowned artists connected to the festival to work on specific repertoires with selected young musicians from all over the world in one-week Ateliers.

Lionel Meunier will lead the Atelier “Wege zu Bach III” in Ganderkesee.

Here the combination of period instruments and vocals with the organ as continuo-instrument are central to finding out which composers were formative for the development of Bach. Incorporating the Schnitger organ, this year’s instalment focuses on the legendary Abendmusiken in Lübeck.
During his tenure as organist of St. Mary’s Church, Franz Tunder initially introduced these as organ-only concerts for the city’s merchants, separate from the church services.
His successor and son-in-law Dieterich Buxtehude developed them into a prestigious concert series with a large instrumental and vocal ensemble, which attracted substantial audiences from near and far as if by magic – including the young Bach.

Contact information to participate : https://www.musikfest-bremen.de/en/whats-on/musikfest-atelier