Georg Philipp Telemann remains one of the most fascinating and yet controversial composers of the Late Baroque. Some ridicule him for his prolific but reputedly superficial output while others view him as a universal musical genius. The cantatas by Telemann featured on this release provide an insight into over 50 years of creative activity. All works featured here were written for the Reformation Day and the feast of St Michael (29th September). Three of the five cantatas have a magnificent orchestration with trumpets and timpani. Performing these magnificent works are the acclaimed ensembles Kammerchor der Erloserkirche Bad Homburg and the Johann Rosenmuller Ensemble.

The Italian fifteenth century Laude still remain to this day a little-known and mysterious musical treasure. 2013 will mark the 600th anniversary of the birth of Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413), a woman of both deep theological insight and extraordinary, artistic talent, who founded and guided the first monastery of the Clarisse in Bologna in 1456. La Reverdie have discovered the repertory of laude sung by the Saint and her sisters, and have placed it in its original context: the expression of a mystic devotional practice which the saint herself vividly describes in her own devotional treatise «the Twelve Gardens».

Axur, re d'Ormus is an operatic dramma tragicomico in five acts by Antonio Salieri. The libretto was by Lorenzo da Ponte. Axur is the Italian version of Salieri's 1787 French-language work Tarare which had a libretto by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Axur premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 8 January 1788, the title role being sung by Francesco Benucci, Mozart's first Figaro. It became one of the most famous operas in Vienna, being performed much more frequently than Mozart's Don Giovanni, which was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1788.