Instructing and educating Christians on the one hand and delighting their minds on the other, so that the words and truths of the Holy Scripture would be anchored deeply within them – this was the purpose of the sacred cantata. No master of the Baroque era wrote more of these than Georg Philipp Telemann. He approached this seemingly ‘tedious work’ with such incredible imagination that his congregations could never be bored. One need only listen to the so-called French Cycle (1714-15). To this end, Vol.4 contributes ten more first recordings. There are certainly meditative moments in both the music for Advent presented here and the cantatas written for the ‘normal’ Sundays of the church year; but these works predominantly feature colourful, enormously picturesque music throughout. They always get straight to the heart of the worship service’s message and are still instantly appealing today.