Credits:

Kuijken

Description:

It is not only lute works! Kapusberger’s Bethlehem Pastor Kapusberger was a German composer who emigrated to Italy. He was a master of the lute and chitarrone, and was renowned in Rome as a “German nobleman. Kapusberger’s vocal music is characterized by a variety of forms unusual for his work: in 1630, he published “The Pastor of Bethlehem.” It is based on a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi (later Pope Clement IX), with a variety of sequential recitative and a splendid chorus. The first performance of “The Pastor of Bethlehem” took place at a dinner in the Papal Palace in Avignon after evening prayer on December 24, and the lyrics, dedicated to the Pope, were performed by then Pope Urbanus VII, who made his own presence felt in the performance. Echo du Danube was founded in 2003 by viola da gamba player Christian Zinke.The ensemble takes its name from the title of a collection of sonatas published in