This CD brings together 17th century vocal works in which death and burial play a central role, the agony, the penitence and the consolation of the hereafter. Reformation composers didn’t write Requiem Masses for the dead, but they commemorate their beloved deceased in smaller forms of a vocal ensemble accompanied by an instrument group of violin, theorbo and organ.

The selection include works by Heinrich Schütz, Michael Praetorius, Johann Hermann Schein and Johannes Demantius, music of poignant beauty, devotion and consolation.

Theses are beautiful performances by the Schütz-Akademie, recorded in the intimate atmosphere of the Salvator Church in Gera.

Recording from 1992, licensed from Berlin Classics.