Recordings made in 1995 & 1998. Schütz never ceases to surprise us with the great variety of musical styles he employs. The Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz and the Historia der Aufferstehung Jesu Christi are conceived in very different ways, as much in the way that the accompaniments to the recitatives are constructed as in the theatricality with which the characters are imbued; the human aspect of the Sieben Worte is contrasted with the more abstract image of the characters in the Historia. Of Johann Sebastiani, however, we know practically nothing. His Matthäus Passion seems nonetheless to be heavily influenced by Schütz, with an additional, typically Lutheran touch given by the chorales that punctuate the various scenes of the Gospel narration.