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Schutz: Psalms of David, Christmas & Easter Historias / Bernius, Stuttgart Baroque Orchestra

Schutz,H. / Bernius,Fieder / Musica Fiata Koln Release Date: 06/10/2016
Label: Sony Catalog #: 796450
Composer:  Heinrich Schütz Performer:  David Cordier ,  Peter Kooy ,  Gerd Türk ,  Mona Spägele  ...  Conductor:  Frieder Bernius ,  Roland Wilson Orchestra/Ensemble:  Stuttgart Chamber Choir ,  Cologne Musica Fiata ,  Stuttgart Baroque Ensemble  ...  Number of Discs: 5

Reviews of some of the original recordings that make up this set:

Roland Wilson and his La Capella Ducale and Musica Fiata by and large achieve a greater degree of characterization and shape, drawing the listener more deeply into each work. In Von Aufgang der Sonnen the two basses, Bas Ramselaar and Harry van der Kamp project a wonderfully invigorating drive into this curious conflation of Psalm texts, eagerly anticipating the confirmatory statements from the instruments. So, too, in the concentrated Freuet euch des Herren and the “Zefiro Torno” inspired Es steh Gott (in fact, Monteverdi’s “Armato il cor” rears its head too) where the close relationship between voices and instruments is intensified by dovetailed phrasing and a Read more fastidious attention to note lengths. If there is one overriding quality to this set, it is the way Schutz’s aesthetic is turned on its head only to come full circle again: by responding alertly and instantly to every nuance in often theatrical and kaleidoscopic vein (no doubt derived from Italian sources), the performers bring ever more closely into focus Schutz’s noble and understated gravitas – more commonly achieved simply through measured reticence. Such is the glorious dichotomy of Schutz’s self-made cosmopolitanism, rendered here with considerable skill and reflected no more strikingly than in the dialogue between “the rich man and Lazarus”, Vater Abraham, erbarme dich mein. If not part of the 1647 published set, it is a truly wondrous bonus.

-- Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Gramophone [12/1997]
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