Rheinische Kantorei; Hermann Max - Schein: Chorale Masses & Sacred Concertos

Five hundred years ago the Reformation occasioned an upsurge in the production of church music, and even today Luther's powerful sacred hymns continue to be mainstays in Lutheran religious services.The Lutheran chorale masses recorded by Hermann Max with his Rheinische Kantorei on vinyl more than thirty years ago represent a special form within these parallel �or shared � relational worlds. Even then the MDG sound engineers used the latest digital technology for the recording - which means that this welcome new edition could be transferred to CD without a hitch.Along with the chorale masses by Christoph Bernhard, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, and Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, Hermann Max presents three works that were highly modern during their times: Sacred Concertos by Johann Hermann Schein on the same hymns. The virtuosic cooperation and opposition between the vocal and instrumental parts was an import from Italy and the latest rage there during Schein's lifetime.