01	Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75 - Ad Pedes						07:14
	02	Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75 - Ad Genua						08:55
	03	Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75 - Ad Manus						07:56
	04	Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75 - Ad Latus						07:15
	05	Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75 - Ad Pectus						09:13
	06	Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75 - Ad Cor						09:08
	07	Membra Jesu Nostri BuxWV 75 - Ad Faciem						06:21
	08	Heut Triumphieret Gottes Sohn BuxWV 43						14:20

BUXTEHUDE. Membra Jesu Nostri.
Concerto Vocale, R.Jacobs
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Dietrich Buxtehude (1637 - 1707)
Membra Jesu nostri BuxWV 75
Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn
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Martina Bovet - soprano
Maria Cristina Kiehr - soprano
Andreas Scholl - alto
Gerd Turk - tenor
Ulrich Messthaler - bass
Concerto Vocale
Rene Jacobs - director
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'Jacobs has found the means of marrying intense religious fervour with highly ''personalised'' expression. (:) The instrumental ensemble provides a commentary of indescribable poetry. (:) The coupling is also exceptionally interesting, with the jubilation of Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn forming a superb contrast with the meditations of Membra Jesu nostri and offering an apotheosis in its concluding Alleluia.' (Le Monde de la Musique)



Rene Jacobs began singing as a choirboy at the cathedral of his native city of Ghent. While studying Classics at the University of Ghent, he continued his musical training in Brussels, then at The Hague. He met the Kuijken brothers, Alfred Deller and Gustav Leonhardt, who encouraged him to specialise in the countertenor register. In the space of a few years he became one of the most eminent exponents of this voice, giving recitals all over the world.
Passionately interested in the immense Baroque repertoire still to be discovered, he created the ensemble Concerto Vocale in 1977. His work as a conductor subsequently saw him leading performances of the operas of Monteverdi, Cesti, Cavalli, Gluck and Handel in the foremost venues in Europe and Japan. Most of these productions have been recorded and have won the most prestigious awards.
Since 1997 Rene Jacobs has been artistic director of the Innsbruck Festival.
Rene Jacobs has been an enthusiastic advocate of Venetian opera for many years, an activity that reached its zenith with the triumph of Cavalli's La Calisto at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1993 - a production subsequently revived in Berlin, Barcelona, Lyon and Montpellier. He will conduct the new staging of the same composer's Eliogabalo at La Monnaie in May 2004, and this production will also be seen at the Innsbruck Festival in August of the same year. In the 2005-06 season he will conduct a new cycle of the Monteverdi operas at the Berlin Staatsoper.
As principal guest conductor and artistic adviser for Baroque repertoire at the Berlin Staatsoper, he has conducted Telemann's Orpheus, Graun's Cleopatra e Cesare, Gassmann's Opera seria and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. He also conducted the latter opera at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2000, and at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. In 2002, the same theatre was the venue for a new production of Le nozze di Figaro, revived in Paris and London (Barbican Centre) in June 2004.
The Syndicat Professionnel de la Critique Dramatique et Musicale (French theatre and opera critics' circle) awarded him the Grand Prix for the best operatic production of 1998 for Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, which he conducted at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July of that year (in the production of the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie). The magazine Diapason named him 'Musical Personality of the Year 1999' for his recordings of Cosi fan tutte and of the oratorio Il primo omicidio by Alessandro Scarlatti. In 2001 the Academie Charles Cros awarded him its highest distinction, the 'Prix in honorem', for his recording of Keiser's Croesus and for his entire career. In 2004, his recording of Handel's Rinaldo received a Cannes Classical Award.
Rene Jacobs was for many years a professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and maintains a close relationship with this institution, where he trained many singers who now appear in the great international opera houses.
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Rene Jacobs (Counter-tenor, Conductor)

Born: October 30, 1946 - Ghent, Belgium

The Belgian counter-tenor and conductor, Rene Jacobs, made his first contact with music through singing. As a child he was a chorister at the Cathedral of Gent. While he studies classical philology at the university of Gent he also continues singing in Brussels and then in La Haye. He met the Kuijken brothers, Gustav Leonhardt and Alfred Deller who encouraged him to specialize as a counter tenor. Within only a few years he was considered to be one of the best counter-tenors of his time and an excellent career was taking him across Europe, to the USA and to the Far East.

Full of enthusiasm for Baroque music and its tremendous repertoire which he is rediscovering, at the height of his singing career Rene Jacobs does not hesitate to enter the orchestra pit in order to conduct the forgotten operas, to edit the orchestra scores.

Rene Jacobs' first co-operation with the "Concerto Vocale" was in 1977, he began a series of recordings by Harmonia Mundi France, which was focused on the vocal chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries and composers like Cesti, d'India, Ferrari, Marenzio, Lambert, Guedron and many others.

Rene Jacobs has conducted in public and for recordings : Orontea by Cesti, Xerse & Giasone by Cavalli, l'Incoronazione di Poppea and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria by Monteverdi, Flavio & Giulio Cesare by Handel, Le Cinesi & Echo und Narziss by Gluck, La Finta Semplice by Mozart, Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena by Francesco Conti.

In 1992, the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden of Berlin invited Rene Jacobs to be the conductor of Cleopatra e Cesare by Graun, for the 250th anniversary of this work and of the Berlin opera. He finished the Monteverdi Opera cycle with l'Orfeo at the Salzburger Festspiele (July / August 1993) and he continued his activities regarding the operas from Venice with the production of La Calisto by Cavalli at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (1993) and a new production of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea at the Festival of Schwetzingen and at the Oper der Stadt Ksln (May / October 1993). The Theatre des Champs Elysees has invited him to conduct Roland by Lully in December 1993.

As a conductor, Rene Jacobs regularly works with orchestras and ensembles such as the Concerto Koln, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin, Nederlands Kamerkoor and RIAS-Kammerchor for recordings and concert tours, performing sacred music and oratorios.

In addition to these activities Rene Jacobs remains devoted to his career as a singer and often produces recitals with his long time partners and friends together such as Konrad Junghanel, Wieland Kuijken, Roel Dieltiens and Andreas Staier.

Rene Jacobs has recorded more than a hundred records and won the most distinguished distinctions such as "Le Grand Prix de l'Academie Charles Cros", "The International Record Critics Award", Deutscher Schallplattenpreis", "Cecilia Award", "Edison Award", "le prix Vivaldi" of the Cini foundation and "The Gramophone Award".

In 1991, Rene Jacobs was nominated artistic director of the opera programs at the Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck. He teaches the interpretation and the Baroque singing style at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Discography: Harmonia Mundi France, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Archiv Produktion, Teldec, Philips, RCA, Capriccio, Accent, Berlin Classics.




Membra Jesu Nostri,
cantata in 7 sections for SSATB voices, 2 violins, 5 violas da gamba, violone & continuo, BuxWV 75
Composer - Dietrich Buxtehude
Composition Date - 1680

Composition Description by "Blue Gene" Tyranny
The largest extant work by the brilliant organist-composer of the St, Mary Church of Lubeck, Germany. A Passion cycle for chorus, solo voices and chamber orchestra, the structural form of this work (7 cantatas X 6 interior parts in each, with 3 arias or half-strophes, two for solo voice and one for vocal trio; and the 7 key centers) follows, with additional Old Testament quotes, the seven-part schema of a medieval poem, the "Rhythmica oratio ad unum quodlibet membrorum Christi patientis et a cruce pendentis" ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux, which contains seven mystical meditations on the different parts of the crucified Jesus's body: I. Ad Pedes (To The Feet) in c-minor, opening with a sonata for strings, with a tenor cry "Salve" followed by a moving five-part choral response; II. Ad Genua (To The Knees) in E-flat major, opens with a mysterious "Sonata in Tremulo" with the strings slowly approaching as if from nowhere with a pulsing cycle of extraordinarly modulating chords, as if circling in the air it almost disappears, and then approaches again to cadence, when the choir takes over on the same progression in canon, followed by tenor and contralto arias and a trio; III. Ad Manus (To the Hands) in g-minor, in which the voices echo the opening string sonata with imitation of the constant alternation between slow, suspended, and twisting passages expressing feelings of pathos, and strong, faster, declamatory choruses; IV. Ad Latus (To the Side) in d-minor, opening with a simple sonata in 6/4 time around a bridge of suspensions (a compositional device perfected by J.S. Bach), and continuing with chorus, soprano aria and trio with some unusual modulations; V. Ad Pectus (To the Chest) in a-minor, with a vocal trio instead of chorus delivering the text; VI. Ad Cor (To the Heart) is scored for an unusual quintet of viol de gambas with harpsichord continuo, adding a muted, interior texture to the deeply moving passages; VII. Ad Faciem (To the Face) returning to c-minor, brings back the choir for several magnificient passages, including a joyous "Amen" chorus in 6/4 time.




Rene Jacobs

Birth - Oct 30, 1946 in Gent

Biography by Joseph Stevenson
Rene Jacobs has been highly successful in a unique duel career as a countertenor and conductor, specializing in vocal music of the Baroque period.

He was a chorister in the Cathedral of his home town of Ghent. Also the home of conductor Philippe Herreweghe, Ghent was a center of the movement to restore older music to the repertoire in authentic style performances. Jacobs studied classical philology at the University of Ghent while continuing his studies of singing in Brussels. He became acquainted with the Kuijken brothers (leading Baroque instrumentalists), Gustav Leonhardt (a top conductor on the authentic instruments scene), and Alfred Deller (a pioneering countertenor). They advised him to continue preparing for a singing career and correctly analyzed his voice as suitable for extension into the countertenor range. Jacobs' interest in Baroque music stems in part from his vocal type: many leading Baroque operatic roles were written for high male voices, either natural altos (countertenors) or artificial (castrati). Jacobs' growing fame as a countertenor led him to become a scholar of Baroque vocal music.

In 1977 he began an association with the Harmonia Mundi France record company, starting with performances with the Concerto Vocale. His early Harmonia Mundi records included vocal chamber music by Cesti, d'India, Ferrari, Marenzio, Lambert, Guederon, and others.

Soon afterwards his studies led him to conducting. Among his recordings and live performances, many of which were the first performances of these works in centuries, are Cesti's Orontea, Cavalli's Xerxe and Giasone, Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, Handel's Flavio and Giulio Cesare, luck's Le Cinese and Echo und Narziss, ozart's La Finta Semplice, and onti's Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena. He performed in the complete operas of Monteverdi for the Salzburg Festival. As a conductor, he frequently appears with the Concerto Koln, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Akademie fur alte Musik Berlin, the Nederlands Kamerkoor, and the RIAS-Kammerchor.

He has made over a hundred recordings won many of the major classical music record awards as both conductor and singer, including the Edison Award, Vivaldi Prize, the Gramophone Award, the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, and the International Record Critics Award.

In 1991 he was appointed artistic director of the opera programs of the Festwochen der Alten Musik of Innsbruck, and teaches Baroque interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.