By mashing together the names of Praetorius and Bach to form PraeBachtorius, the Ensemble Huelgas are signalling that they mean to offer dumbstruck listeners versions by either artist of over thirty religious Lutheran chorales. In some cases, such as Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, we find no fewer than three versions of each, written to be inserted into various works – cantatas, church chorales, passions etc. Naturally, the century that separates these two musicians (Praetorius lived from 1571 to 1621, Bach from 1685 to 1750) implies a major difference in writing style and conception. Praetorius enjoyed all the melodic and harmonic inventions of Italy in general and Venice in particular, with his extravagantly rich polychoral writing. For Bach, who wrote at least four hundred Lutheran chorales, some destined for much larger works, and others for liturgical use. Recall that Bach's Lutheran chorale demanded four mixed voices; the original theme of the chorale was for the soprano, and the works would be distributed homophonically, that is, everyone would sing more or less the same words in the same time, rhythmically speaking. In other words; no imitations, no vertically-independent lines, etc. Praetorius, on the other hand, didn't hesitate to take on very different genres, going from a line accompanied by a solo continuo to very elaborate pieces. The meeting of the two is fascinating. Note that the original melodies here are taken from the immense Lutheran catalogue, including a few by Luther himself, and others by musicians from the decades following the Reformation: but none from either Bach or Praetorius themselves. The idea was to use old, well-known material. © SM/Qobuz