Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

2007 marked the 350th anniversary of the birth of Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, an event which was missed down my way but which is commemorated in this collection of sacred cantatas spread across two discs. The scholarly essay provided by Manfred Fechner fills in some of the gaps. He writes that Erlebach "is regarded as one of the most important masters between Heinrich Schutz and Johann Sebastian Bach in the Central German music landscape." It goes without saying that Erlebach comes nowhere near the heights of Bach or even Schutz so one would have to be particularly keen on German Baroque music to go to the trouble of tracking down this release. I know it is faint praise but the best I can say about this is that it was pleasant background music on a long car journey. The performances by the soloists and the quaintly named Les Amis de Philippe (and this Philippe is Bach's son, by the way) are more than adequate but not strong enough to lift the content beyond the ordinary.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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