Peter Kopp is a stylish director, and his youthful choir and orchestra are magnificent. The soloists are capable, although the soprano and alto do not always blend convincingly in Schürer’s Christus natus est. Heinichen’s Te Deum is replete with brilliant horns, exhilarating choruses and moments of pastoral tenderness. Giovanni Alberto Ristori, a Bolognese musician who settled in Dresden, composed his Messa per il Santissimo Natale in 1744. It is full of glorious and lyrical moments evoking shepherds and the Nativity. Kopp’s elegant performance of Ristori’s O admirabile mysterium goes to show what we lost when most of Ristori’s church music was destroyed during World War II. Carus deserves credit for its illuminating exploration of the rich Dresden school of Baroque sacred music: long may it continue.

-- David Vickers, Gramophone [1/2005]