Heinrich Schütz
was the leading German composer of the
seventieth century and managed to achieve
an amazing tenure of fifty-seven out
of his eighty-seven year life as Kapellmeister
at the Electorial Court in Dresden.
Schütz travelled
to Italy twice during his lifetime and
studied in Venice with the master composers:
Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi. Schütz
thoroughly internalised the Venetian
polychoral concertato style, giving
equal weight to both voices and instruments,
which is the predominant style of many
of his works. This unlikely fusion
of Gabrieli’s Italian school and Protestant
Germany was cutting-edge music and we
are told that the German performers
of Schütz’s day found the requirements
of this style extremely difficult technically
to perform.
The material contained
on this recording from Regis has all
been released previously. I recall ten
of these motets being released on an
ASV Quicksilver disc a few years ago
to much acclaim. Regis strangely entitle
this release ‘11 Motets’ when
in actual fact there are thirteen motets
although one of them Auf Dem Gebirge
is here in two versions.
As demonstrated on
this Regis release the amount of variety
that Schütz puts into his works
is tremendous, constantly contrasting
each piece with different instrumental
and assorted vocal combinations thus
ensuring a kaleidoscope of German early
Baroque colour.
From start to finish
under the direction of Edgar Fleet the
freshness of the music-making from all
concerned is impressive and it is difficult
to find fault with this release. Containing
several mistakes only the annotation
is somewhat below par but with superb
performances such as these and at super-budget
price the release remains eminently
recommendable. This recording would
be a wonderful place to start on an
exploration of Heinrich Schütz’s
music.
Michael Cookson
Pro Cantione Antiqua, London Cornett and Sackbut
Ensemble, Restoration Academy/ Edgar Fleet (director)
