Johann Ludwig Bach: Trauermusik Soloists, RIAS Kammerchor/Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/Rademann – review

Here's a real find: a big, ambitious piece by a distant relative of JS Bach who worked in Meiningen. This two-choir work of 1724 has claims to be a possible precursor to the St Matthew Passion three years later, and we know that Sebastian performed some of Ludwig's cantatas in Leipzig in 1726. Don't be put off by the funeral music title; this is optimistic and celebratory and it bursts with trumpets-and-drums fervour in honour of the departed Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, while visions of the heavenly host mingle with deep-felt grief in complex counterpoint. Excellent performances; a major rediscovery which should be heard here.