The Great Lutheran master's setting of the longest psalm
Rob | Fullerton, NE USA | 07/26/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Heinrich Schutz, the great Lutheran master, provides an exquisite setting of Psalm 119 in this new collection. Written at age 86, Schutz concluded his musical output with sacred motets for double choirs. Besides the setting of the longest psalm, Schutz also provides a setting of Psalm 100 and the Magnificat.
Psalm 119 is arranged in Scripture according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Schutz adopts this arrangement for his setting (aleph-beth, gimel-daleth, he-waw, and so on). The result is 11 exquisite motets, in addition to the Ps. 110 setting and Magnificat, that became known as Schutz's "swan song", hence the name of the recording.
Yet even though Schutz had served in Dresden for many years under Elector Johann Georg I, the son who succeeded as patron (Johann Georg II) was more interested in current Italian styles of music and leadership than his father had. The Dresden court records show no evidence that Schutz's Schwanengesang was performed, so it is possible that the Concerto Palatino and Collegium Vocale Gent have provided the first performance of these pieces in 300 years.
In the 1900's, partbooks and the continuo book that had been missing and thought to be lost were rediscovered. This led to a new critical edition that was before this time impossible.
The musicians do a fantastic job with this work. Director Phillipe Herreweghe leads the ensemble with sensitivity and passion. This is a must for any Schutz fan, anyone interested in early Lutheran church music, and anyone interested in the middle Baroque era."
To say this is one of the finest Schutz recordings ever is a
Baroque and opera freak | Hong Kong | 04/04/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Although I am a long-time lover of Baroque music and sacred music, I don't think that I fully have the sophistication necessary to review this recording. To put that another way, as sacred music it is considerably more sophisticated than the music that I usually listen to. Perhaps the most useful thing that I can say is that at first I had a lot of trouble listening on for more than around 15 minutes to this recording, because I felt it was too "churchy" and wanted to jump immediately to listening to Baroque opera or Bach. Then when I finally really listened to the recording, I found it to be one of the most direct roads to bliss among my large CD collection. I'm sorry if I can't put this in more sophisticated terms, but this work -- this recording -- really takes you there, right into the heart of the Christian music tradition, and as you all must know that is where salvation resides. Chorus leaders and conductors around the world should note that this is one of the great choral works that, so far, has almost never been performed. To me this music is not like Bach in any way, but neither is it in any way inferior to Bach. I realize that this is a very bold thing to say, so I say it again: this work and this performance are not inferior in any way to Bach. And yet, as far as I know this is the only complete recording of Schutz's Schwanengesang in existence -- quite an awesome accomplishment, and a great culmination to the glorious career of the immortal Philippe Herreweghe. I don't know if my deepest bow is to Schutz or to Herreweghe, but I do know that I am grovelling on the ground before these great musicians, and without their help I may never be able to stand up again. When will I be able to hear this work performed on the stage before me by a superb choir, or performed by the choir that I myself am a member of? Those who have the power to bring it off -- please, I am waiting. And so is the listening public, though most of them do not know it yet."
Simply remarkable
Erik Gfesser | Lombard, IL United States | 06/21/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The heart of this work is Psalm 119 magnificently set to music, together with Psalm 100 and the German Magnificat rounding out this collection (known in Schütz's circle as his "Schwanengesang" - his swansong). The lyrics are all in German, although as noted by the liner notes "the timeless character of the music is further emphasized by the choice of a Gregorian psalm tone for the intonations to the motets and the introduction to the doxology appended to each piece". Well executed German choral music from the late-1600s is an exceedingly rare find (this work, for example, was lost for about three centuries), and this piece is executed beautifully. Heinrich Schütz concluded his life's work with this collection of motets for double choir at the age of 86 in the midst of changing times within the state of Germany. As the liner notes explain, after a steady professional rise the composer became Oberkapellmeister to the Saxon electoral court and the widely-respected "father of modern music" against the backdrop of the horrific Thirty Years War. "Musical style at the Dresden court and in central Germany as a whole had completely changed; graceful melodies with clear-cut rhythms on free texts were now to be heard in churches too, lessening the distance between sacred music and secular court life; the dignified gravitas of the old art was threatened with oblivion. In this changed world, forever altered by the 'Great War', there was no longer a place for the old Oberkapellmeister. Schütz clearly sensed this, and described his increasing estrangement from those around him in resigned, lucid terms. In the early 1670s he prepared to take his leave; he chose a passage from Psalm 119 as his funeral text, had it set to music by his former colleague (and probable pupil) Christoph Bernhard, and finally himself set the entire psalm, comprising no fewer than 176 verses, in eleven motets". The liner notes further explain that "the 119th Psalm occupies a special position not merely within the Psalter but in the entire Bible. Protestant theologians of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw it as a summing up in a small space the content of the whole of the Old and New Testaments. The regular marking of every eighth verse with one of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet (from Aleph to Thau) also led to the psalm being nicknamed the 'Golden ABC'. Schütz, as an avid reader of the Scriptures and their theological exegesis, was certainly aware of this special place of Psalm 119; accordingly, the composition of this significant text symbolised for him a setting of the entire Bible and thus no less than the musical representation of the basis of his life and work and of the cosmic order as a whole"."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1