The first volume of Symphoniae sacrae was composed during Heinrich Schütz’s second trip to Venice in 1629. During the first one, he had improved his practice of polychorality with Giovanni Gabrieli; during the latter Claudio Monteverdi introduced him to the new expressive means allowed by the stile moderno. This collection, here performed by the Sacqueboutiers with such vocal soloists as Guillemette Laurens and Bernard Fabre-Garrus, is a very important milestone of German sacred music.