German baroque masterworks for countertenor and strings.

Buxtehude’s fame rests principally on his keyboard music but this disc explores his outstanding vocal works, set in the context of J S Bach and J C Bach. Each of these composers worked in important centres of Lutheran music in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Germany. Seventeenth-century German composers quickly adopted the new vocal styles that burst onto the scene in Italy at the beginning of the century: monody, in which a single voice declaims a text with special attention to the emotion and meaning of the words, and in the concerto style, consisting of opposing bodies of sound.

Grammy nominated Ryland Angel is one of the leading countertenors, well known in the USA and Europe for his specialization in early music. He has performed at many of the top venues, including Carnegie Hall and the English National Opera. He has worked with an array of stars, including William Christie and Rene Jacobs.