The Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser began one of his most cherished verses, “Faire is the heaven where happy soules have place in full enjoyment of felicitie.” Writers, painters, and composers would often evoke glimpses of the Paradise that could be found in the life beyond, an antidote to the troubled times that were experienced by so many in periods past. Heinrich Schütz’s serenely beautiful Musikalische Exequien draws upon texts from the Psalms, the Canticle of Simeon, Revelations, and the Book of Wisdom to illuminate the recognition of new life, including a dramatic effect of three spirits moving throughout the concert space. The exuberance of the vocal works by Bruhns and Weckmann, and Bach’s peaceful and uplifting Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit combine to make this a concert program of heavenly beauty.