CPO’s series of Sacred Music in Hamburg during the 17th and 18th centuries turns its attention to Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739). Capella Orlandi of Bremen is directed from the chitarrone by Thomas Ihlenfeldt, who also provides a helpful essay, free from the editorial quirks that sometimes beset CPO booklets. Keiser is reputed by scholars to be one of the most gifted and interesting German composers of his generation and this disc collects together three works that confirm he deserves greater attention from performers.

The chorus that both opens and closes the motet Ich liege und schlafe ganz mit Frieden (c1700) is a beautiful illustration of the last line of the fourth psalm ( “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety”). In the intervening short contemplative arias all seven singers are authoritative and stylish soloists. They combine effectively in the choruses of Wir gingen alle in der Irre, which is a half-hour fragment of a St Luke Passion. Melancholic oboe playing adorns the aria describing Christ’s agony in Gethsemane; animated violins are used for the aria responding to Judas’s betrayal; after the cock crows, an extraordinary sequence of laments for Peter is sung expressively by Julian Podger.

Seelige Erlösungs-Gedancken (published 1715) is a selection of arias and recitatives taken from the oratorio Der zum Tode verurtheilte und gecreutzigte Jesus (performed four years earlier). Keiser’s talent as a musical dramatist is obvious in the passionate vocal lines and lyrical oboe writing in several arias such as Mary Magdalene’s lament “Weinet, ihr retreue Herzen”, the economical yet elegant cello obbligato in the Pious Thief’s “Ich bin zum Himmel eingeladen” and the attractive pizzicato accompaniment of the final aria “Aus Liebe bin ich Mensch geworden” (sung warmly by bass Matthias Jahrmärker).