Kuhnau’s Magnificat in C major is – apart from his Biblical Sonatas – considered to be his most ambitious and best known work. However, as recent research has revealed, there are indeed many other large-scale works among his oeuvre which are largely presumed lost today, apart from those that were published as first editions. Until now, only insufficient or erroneous editions of the Magnificat have been available, a piano reduction has not been available at all.
Beyond that, editor David Erler has succeeded in tracking down new evidence on the authorship of four Laudes (insertion movements for performances over Christmas) and to carry out their altogether new placement in the main work. He was able to prove that Bach’s Magnificat directly succeeded Kuhnaus’s work and that the use of such Laudes was common in Leipzig’s parish churches and beyond.