Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera in Saxony, died in 1635. While still alive, he compiled suitable texts and asked the court composer in Dresden, Heinrich Schütz, to compose funeral music for him. Heinrich Schütz kept his word and created of a work of great contemplative power. Musikalische Exequien is supplemented by a thematically related motet from the collection Geistliche Chormusik and also by sacred madrigals from the collection Israels Brünnlein, which Schütz’s contemporary and compatriot Johann Hermann Schein composed in 1623.

Pre-concert talk with Václav Luks, 6.30 pm