Heinrich Schütz Psalmen & Friedensmusiken. Complete recording, Vol. 20

Heinrich Schütz is regarded as the first German musician of European stature. As a choirboy from 1599 at the court of Landgrave Moritz of Hessen-Kassel, he received a thorough education. In 1608 he began a law degree in Marburg, but broke this off in 1609 in order, with the support of the Landgrave, to study composition with Giovanni Gabrieli, organist at St Mark’s in Venice. In 1613 Schütz returned to Kassel, but two years later was enticed away by Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony to the Dresden court as “Organist und Director der Musica”, where he held the position of Hofkapellmeister (court Kapellmeister) from 1617 until his death. Schütz’s great cycles of vocal works marked the high point of his reputation in Germany and northern Europe. But these represent only part of Schütz’s output; individual works are represented in printed collections with works by other composers, others only survive in manuscript, and much has been lost. The Stuttgart Schütz Edition makes available Schütz’s complete oeuvre, and all works are also published in practical Urtext editions. Personal details

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DRESDNER KAMMERCHOR Radiant, transparent, homogeneous and flexible: the Dresdner Kammerchor is internationally esteemed for its unique culture of sonority. Its artistic director Hans-Christoph Rademann has shaped this distinctive sound since the choir was founded in 1985, leading it to worldwide renown. The choir’s diverse repertoire has its foundation in Baroque music, with a special focus on Saxon court music. As a cultural ambassador for Dresden and Saxony, the choir keeps the musical heritage of its homeland alive and makes it known to an international audience. A prominent example of this is the world’s first complete Heinrich Schütz recording, which was concluded in 2019, published by Carus-Verlag, and has won several awards: among others, the St. John Passion was awarded the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics in 2016, and the last installment of the edition containing “Psalms and Peace Music” was honored with the Opus Klassik 2020. The choir has also rediscovered, performed anew and recorded on CD numerous works by other Central German masters such as Johann Adolf Hasse, Johann David Heinichen and Jan Dismas Zelenka in collaboration with the Dresden Baroque Orchestra and other musical partners. In addition to symphonic choral works from the Classical and Romantic periods, a further repertoire focus is on challenging a cappella works of the 19th and 20th centuries. This includes music by Johannes Brahms, Max Reger, Olivier Messiaen, Francis Poulenc, Arnold Schoenberg and Herman Berlinski. For years, the Dresdner Kammerchor has been intensively dedicated to modern and contemporary music, with world premieres, first performances and its own commissioned works. This commitment is deepened further by diverse music education and youth projects. In 2009, Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Dresdner Kammerchor initiated the Dresden Choral Workshop for New Music, which took place for the 4th time in 2018. For its services to contemporary choral music, the choir was awarded a Sponsorship Prize by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The Dresdner Kammerchor gives guest performances in centers of music and at festivals throughout Europe. Tours have taken the singers to Israel, India, Taiwan, China, Mexico, South America, South Africa and the USA. Musical partners to date have included René Jacobs, Sir Roger Norrington, Ádám Fischer, Václav Luks, Stefan Parkman, Trevor Pinnock, Christoph Prégardien, Jos van Immerseel, Herbert Blomstedt, Omer Meir Wellber, Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Chailly and Reinhard Goebel, as well as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Anima Eterna Brugge, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. The choir regularly collaborates with the Wroc"naw Baroque Orchestra. By means of a cooperation with the Dresden University of Music, the Dresdner Kammerchor keeps the connection to its roots alive. Personal details

Conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is an immensely versatile artist with a broad repertoire who devotes himself with equal passion and expertise both to the performance and rediscovery of early music and to the first performances and cultivation of Contemporary Music. Born in Dresden and raised in the Erzgebirge mountains, he was influenced at an early age by the great Central German kantorial and musical tradition. He was a student at the traditional Kreuzgymnasium, a member of the famous Kreuzchor, and studied choral and orchestral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. During his studies, he founded the Dresdner Kammerchor and formed it into a top international choir which is still under his direction today. Since 2013, Hans-Christoph Rademann has been the academy director of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart. He regularly collaborates with leading choirs and ensembles of the international music scene. From 1999 to 2004 he was chief conductor of the NDR Choir and from 2007 to 2015 chief conductor of the RIAS Chamber Choir. Guest conducting engagements have led and continue to lead him to the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Akademie für Alte Musik, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, among others. Hans-Christoph Rademann has been awarded prizes and honors for his artistic work, including the Johann Walter Plaque of the Saxon Music Council (2014), the Saxon Constitutional Medal (2008), the Sponsorship Prize as well as the Art Prize of the state capital Dresden (1994 and 2014 respectively). He received the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik several times for his numerous CD recordings (most recently in 2016), as well as the Grand Prix du Disque (2002), the Diapason d’Or (2006 & 2011), the CHOC de l’année 2011 and the Best Baroque Vocal Award 2014. In 2016 he was awarded the European Church Music Prize of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd. His exemplary interpretation and recording of the complete works of Heinrich Schütz with the Dresdner Kammerchor in the Stuttgart Carus-Verlag, which was completed in 2019, was awarded the newly endowed Heinrich Schütz Prize as well as the OPUS KLASSIK 2020 in the same year. Hans-Christoph Rademann is professor of choral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. He is also artistic director of the Musikfest Erzgebirge, ambassador of the Erzgebirge and patron of the Christian Hospice Service Dresden. Personal details

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The blind soprano Gerlinde Sämann studied piano and singing at the Richard Strauss Conservatoire in Munich, working with teachers including Karl- Heinz Jarius, Henriette Meyer-Ravenstein and Selma Aykan. Her repertoire ranges from historic works, via lieder and oratorio, to avant-garde and contemporary music theatre works. Since 1991 Gerlinde Samann has performed as a soloist with a wide range of ensembles, mainly specializing in early music, at leading festivals. These include the Dresdner Kreuzchor, Accentus Chamber Choir, Arsys Bourgogne, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, and La Petite Bande. She also enjoys a busy career in opera and contemporary music theatre, working with directors such as Arila Siegert, Gil Mehmert, Sabine Hasz, Thomas Hoft, Crescentia Dunser, and Otto Kukla. She has made numerous radio recordings and CDs in Germany and abroad. Gerlinde Samann is passionately committed to devising programs of unusual songs and duos, performing these with musicians such as the renowned fortepianist Ronald Brautigam. Personal details

The mezzo-soprano Maria Stosiek was born in Gorlitz in 1988. In Dresden she studied voice under Christiane Junghanns and violin with Annette Under and was a stipendiary of the Dresden Talentschmiede. Master classes under, among others, Charlotte Lehmann and Dorothee Mields brought her important musical impulses. Today she sings in the MDR choir (Middle German Radio Choir) as well as in the Dresdner Kammerchor, where she regularly sings solo parts. Moreover, she works as a soloist together with both the Singakademie Dresden and the Vokalensemble Kassel. Concert tours have taken her to other European countries, to Israel and Palestine, as well as to Taiwan and China. In addtion to ensemble singing and concert singing Maria Stosiek has devoted herself increasingly to contemporary music. Personal details

As a scholarship recipient of the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung Munich, David Erler studied voice in Leipzig with Marek Rzepka. The sought-after soloist throughout Europe works with Peter Van Heyghen, Jos van Immerseel, Wolfgang Katschner, Hermann Max, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Ludger Remy, and Roland Wilson as well as ensembles such as Collegium Marianum Prag, Ensemble Inegal, Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam, Lautten Compagney Berlin, Les Muffatti Brussel, and Weser- Renaissance Bremen. He is also in great demand as a guest singer in vocal ensembles such as the ensemble amarcord, the Calmus Ensemble, Singer Pur and Stimmwerck. More than 50 CD productions, as well as engagements at prestigious festivals (including the Bachfest Leipzig, Handelfestspiele Halle, Resonanzen Wien, Musica Antiqua Brugge) are further evidence of his artistic work. He is also the editor of the Cantatas by Johann Kuhnau, at Pfefferkorn Musikverlag in Leipzig. Personal details

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Tenor Tobias Mäthger studied singing, conducting and school music in Dresden and works as a freelance singer, conductor, teacher and church musician. He has already achieved considerable success with a varied concert career both nationally and internationally. He is a member and soloist with the Dresdner Kammerchor, as well as a member of the soloists’ ensemble of the Musik Podium Stuttgart under Frieder Bernius. In addition, he regularly works with leading artists and ensembles including Marc Minkowski, Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, Dresden Staatskapelle, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Bremer Kammerphilharmonie, Dresdner Kreuzchor, Rheinische Kantorei and many others, as a soloist or as a conductor’s assistant. Personal details

Ratio, Emotio, Physis – reason, emotion and physics – to be able to bring these three human aspects together in singing, that is the great challenge and the profound joy in Felix Schwandtke’s life. Being the son of a mathematician and an engineer, he has been shaped by analytical thinking; music provided a way for him to relate this to emotion, and to explore, with joy, the developing interaction. In the process, early music became an important catalyst, and his creative work lead him to renowned ensembles all across Europe, bringing with it many new musical encounters. Among these, the ones who have made the most impact are Hans-Christph Rademann, Ludger Rémy and Lars Ulrik Mortensen, as well as the director and Baroque dancer Milo Pablo Momm. Personal details

The baritone Martin Schicketanz began studying voice at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden in 2008. He continued his vocal training in the concert classes of Christiane Junghanns and Olaf Bär. On the opera stage he has already performed such roles as "Zangezi" in a joint project of the same name produced together by the Semperoper, Dresden and the composition class of Manos Tsangaris. Schicketanz has a special affinity for works in the area of concert music and already he performs regularly in oratorios and cantatas at various festivals, including the Gstaad Menuhin Festival (CH), the Musikfest Stuttgart (Germany), the BOZAR Festival (Belgium) and the Musikfest Erzgebirge (Germany). Musically and professionally he received vital stimulus through his participation in master classes given by Britta Schwarz, Dorothee Mields and Ingeborg Danz. He also sings in various ensembles, including the Dresdner Kammerchor, Collegium 1704, and the Collegium Vocale Gent. Personal details