Search - Johann Hermann Schein, Philippe Herreweghe :: Schein: Israelis Brünnlein

A German Gesualdo

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 03/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every young Baroque musician who's played at weddings, Xmess parties, and such will be familiar with Johann Hermann Schein's "Banchetto Musicale", the perfect gig music, simple, bright, and apt for improvization. Schein himself declared in his preface to the 1617 edition that he intended to write music for "seemly pleasure at decent social gatherings." But Johann had another calling, as a serious composer of music for "Christian meditation in the celebration of divine service," once again his own words in translation. Schein spent the last 14 years of his short life as Cantor of St. Thomas's in Leipzig, the very same position held by JS Bach a hundred years later.



Ironically, Schein chose to elaborate his most pious music for Christian meditation using the stylistic innovations of the Italian madrigalists of the late 1500s. It's unlikely that he ever encountered the magrigals of Carlo Gesualdo, the eccentric prince who murdered his wife and her lover, yet one of Schein's most Gesualdoesque motets is based on the text from Proverbs which begins "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth..."! Gesualdo's madrigal texts are the typical Italian poems of passion, jealousy, and implicit sexual lust. The texts of Schein's 26 motets in Israelis Bruennlein are all Biblical, pious, and penitent. Closing your ears to the words, nonetheless, Schein employs all the same enraptured chromaticisms and piquant dissonances that make Gesualdo's madrigals the summit of emotional expressiveness in Renaissance music. I must say I didn't expect such artistic intensity from the composer of the little dances in the Banchetto Musicale.



Philippe Herreweghe's vocal ensemble for this performance sounds like the most mellifluous and disciplined choir ever assembled... until you note that it isn't a choir at all, but rather five vibrant soloists singing one-on-a-part. The richness of their voices may well be technically enhanced, but certainly the quality of recording is pleasingly realistic and 'present.' Another factor is the elegant instrumental continuo - cello, contrabass, chamber organ and lute - which support the vocal polyphony discretely but resonantly.



This is a discovery CD for me, a re-release at bargain price of a 1997 prize-winner that I somehow missed. The music is so exciting and the performance so polished that I intend to take a new 'listen' to the sacred works of Johann Hermann Schein. I wonder what they were feeding kids in Germany around 1600; it seems as if every fifth child grew up to be a musical genius."

Brilliant.

Birdman | Minnetonka, MN USA | 09/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A 2005 reissue of a watershed choral recording.



A brilliant, alert performance of a work more commonly distributed on two discs. In this case, listeners will not hear five of 26 madrigals, but at $6.99, the quality of performance and recording will offset the loss.



The Ensemble Vocal Européan vocalists, including Mark Padmore and Peter Kooy, are as polished as the instrumentalists. Schein's contrapuntal style, harmonies and integration of musical forces beyond Germany are evident in later Baroque music, most often in the choral work of Heinrich Schutz.



This generous CD, clocking in at just under 80 minutes, is passionate, the acoustic warm, the pieces well-defined, the commitment of all players wonderful. It reminds us Harmonia Mundi's Musique d'Abord Series is a serious contender in the super-budget category.



If you love Monteverdi's madrigals, you will eat this up like candy. Indeed, the recording has garnered many international awards since its initial release in 1997.



Notes are inadequate but texts are included.



Ten stars."