Herne's annual Early Music Days festival delved into the Old Testament, delivering an entertaining series of concerts based around each one of the Ten Commandments. Last week, we presented five highlights from those concerts, and there are five more on the way this time.

We're following the festival's lead in presenting the commandments in an order that deviates from the one God apparently intended. This time, the show begins with a commandment likely violated by Herne's organizers when putting together such a complex and wide-ranging festival program: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Historically, one way in which that commandment has been violated is through the waging of wars in the name of the Divine. A typical song written by Guiraut Riquier to boost the morale of the crusaders kicks things off.

Afterward, there's much more from the late medieval period into the Renaissance and Baroque, including works by Alessandro Scarlatti, Thomas Tallis and Johann David Heinichen.

Guiraut Riquier (c. 1230-1292)
Karitatz ez amors e fes (excerpt)

Ensemble Micrologus
Conductor: Patrizia Bovi

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Caino overo Il primo omicidio (Cain or the First Murder, excerpt)

Elena Carzaniga, mezzo soprano
Marina De Liso, mezzo soprano
La Risonanza
Conductor: Fabio Bonizzoni

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585)
Why brag'st in malice high

Capella de la Torre
Conductor: Katharina Bäuml (Schalmei)

Antonio Lotti (1666-1740)
Trio Sonata in A Major

Il Gardellino
Conductor: Jan De Winne

Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)
Non piango, from the opera "L’Euridice"

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)
Cruda morte, from the opera "L’Euridice"

Scherzi Musicali
Conductor: Nicolas Achten

Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729)
Der glückliche Liebeswechsel oder Paris und Helena (The fortunate change of love or Paris and Helen, excerpt)

Susanne Ellen Kirchesch, soprano
Tobias Berndt, bass
Gesche Geier, soprano
David Szigetvári, tenor
Lautten Compagney Berlin
Conductor: Wolfgang Katschner

Recorded by West German Radio (WDR) in the Herne Arts Center on November 10-11, 2012

Rebroadcasting rights: One broadcast before March 3, 2014