The outstanding musical significance of Johann Rosenmüller, who was said to be able to merge Italian sensuality and German “gravitas” in his compositions in the most harmonious way, was already undisputed among his contemporaries. He studied in Leipzig, and quite soon the town council realized that he was a musician of an immense talent. Rosenmüller therefore received a position at the famous Leipzig Thomasschule, and was considered as the future successor of the ill Thomaskantor, Tobias Michael.

The Sächsisches Vocalensemble under Matthias Jung has now recorded its second selection of Christmas gems for cpo from one of the most important collections of Lutheran church music, the St. Augustin School in Grimma, Saxony. The focus: festive, magnificent church cantatas (most of them including Christmas trumpet splendor) by composers from Central Germany who were famous musicians and held prominent posts during the years before and after 1700. To name only a few: Johann Schelle, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, and Johann Rosenmüller, as well as composers such as Christian Liebe or Gottfried Vogel who are no longer remembered today but whose music brings wonder to modern listeners.

In late 17th century Venice, a trinity of highly talented composers Rosenmüller, Legrenzi and Stradella enjoyed flourishing careers. They were men whose lives were bound together by fame and persecution as well as peerless musicians whose innovative, passionate compositions were uniquely complementary. On this new disc featuring Sonatas and Sinfonias by this remarkable trio of maestri, Manfredo Kraemer leads his group The Rare Fruits Council in performances that illuminate the virtuosity and tenderness of their compositional art.

During the seventeenth century, there was no such thing as a middle-class concert scene in Italy, as we are familiar with today. If one wanted to hear festive music, one could only experience this on a regular basis in church services. Since the Catholic mass onlyoffered, due to liturgical guidelines, limited possibilities for the performance of extensive musical works, the vespers during key Catholic celebrations in particular developed especially on Marian feast days into concert-like evening music. One of the greatest of its kind is the Vesper For The Blessed Virgin by Johann Rosenmüller (1617-1684), who grew up in Germany, but experienced the greatest part of his career as a composer in Italy.

The Venetian triumph of a German in exile. After having been considered the "Alpha & Omega Musicorum" in Germany, in 1655 Rosenmüller succeeded in escaping from Saxony where he had been imprisoned for an offence against morality… Shortly afterwards he began a new life in the City of the Doges and went on to become one of the most highly esteemed composers of the day. Dominated by an impressive Dixit Dominus of 621 bars, these Vespers of the Blessed Virgin are in the direct lineage of a Venetian tradition already glorified by Monteverdi and Cavalli.