Seltsam.... das schönste Liebeslied der Welt, für zwei Soprane geschrieben. Zu Zeiten Monteverdis waren das sicher Kastraten.

I consider this to be the most beautiful lovesong in the world, In 1643

this meant that one or both of the voices was a castrato.....

Claudio Monteverdi:

 L‘incoronazione di Poppea

Stabat Mater dolorosa

Juxta crucem lacrimosa

Dum pendebat Filius

A weeping mother was standing

full of sorrow beside the cross,

while her Son was hanging on it.

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater/Salve Regina with James Bowman  (countertenor) and

Emma Kirkby (soprano)

directed by  Christopher Hogwood

Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage,

Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan!

Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage,

Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an!

Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören,

Lasst uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren!

1. Chor aus dem Weihnachtsoratorium

von J.S. Bach, dirigiert von René Jacobs

Ich wusste gar nicht, dass Mozart auch so verhalten dramatisch sein kann.

Mozart in a subdued dramatic mood.

W. A. Mozart: Klavierkonzert Nr. 9, 2. Satz, Andantino

Der grosse Sohn des grossen Bach:

Carl Philipp Emanuel und eines seiner Klavierwerke (Hammerklavier)

A great son of the great Bach and one of his works for tangent piano:

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

See, see even night is here

To favour your design;

and all her peaceful train is near,

That men to sleep incline.

Let noise and care,

Doubt and despair,

Envy and spite

(the fiend‘s delight)

Be ever banished hence;

Let soft repose

her eyelids close,

And murmuring streams

Bring pleasing dreams;

Let nothing stay to give offence.

If love‘s a sweet passion,

why does it torment?

If a bitter, oh tell me

whence comes my content?

Since I suffer with pleasure,

why should I complain,

or grieve at my fate when I know ‘tis in vain?

Yet so pleasing the pain is, so soft is the dart

That at once it both wounds me

and tickles my heart.

Henry Purcell

The Fairy Queen

(after Shakespeare‘s Midsummer Nights Dream)

Henry Purcell: The Fairy Queen

(after Shakespeare‘s Midsummer Nights Dream)

Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum

in vanum labovarerverunt, qui aedificant eam.

Nisi dominus custodierit civitatem

frustra vigilat qui custodit eam.

Except the Lord builds the house

they labour in vain that build it:

except the Lord keeps the city,

the watchman waketh but in vain.

Vivaldi: Stabat Mater/ Nisi Dominus

James Bowman under Christopher Hogwood

Claudio Monteverdi:

 L‘incoronazione di Poppea