MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Heinrich SCHÜTZ (1585-1672)
Il primo libro de madrigali , Op.1, SWV 1-19 (1611)
see end of review for track listing
Sette Voci/Peter Kooij
rec. Protestant Church, Kirchheim, Germany, 10-13 January 2011. DDD
Booklet with texts and translations included
CPO 777660-2 [55:34]

Secular Italian-texted music from a German Lutheran composer better known for his German-texted sacred music is not as much a contradiction as might first appear. Like many musicians before and after him, the 24-year-old Heinrich Schütz spent time learning his trade in Italy; in the case of some of his sacred music it’s difficult to be sure exactly what he composed and what he transcribed from Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. He published this collection of madrigals as his Op.1 in Venice in 1611. Though described as the first book, there seem to have been no successors, so this makes an attractive pendant to his sacred music.
 
There already were two recordings of Book I of these madrigals:
 - Carus 83.237: Dresden Kammerchor/Hans-Christoph Rademann - review
- Harmonia Mundi HMG501686: Cantus Cölln/Konrad Junghänel, a recent reissue at mid-price of a recording first released in 2000.
 
You can compare these with the new recording from the Naxos Music Library. The Dresden Kammerchor sing well but, as Johan van Veen points out, the employment of a choir in this music is quirky to say the least. Cantus Cölln give a much leaner-textured and more enjoyable performance. You’ll also find two recordings there which are not available on CD in the UK: Hannover Orlando di Lasso Ensemble (Thorofon CTH2387) and Capella Lipsiensis, Berlin Classics 0021022); all five of these recordings, including the new CPO, are available for download from classicsonline.com in mp3 but CPO downloads from that source tend to come with only a truncated version of the booklet, devoid of texts. Worse, though there are lossless downloads of the CPO and Carus recordings at an attractive price from eclassical.com, the all-important booklet of texts is not part of the deal, even in truncated form.
 
The themes of these madrigals will be familiar to anyone who knows the Italian models, Monteverdi et al - the coming of Spring, the sweetness of love and the bitterness of loving in vain. Lost love is always more bitter than never to have loved at all and the outcome often presages the death of the lover. Schütz’s main source is Guarini’s pastoral collection Il Pastor fido - nothing, surprisingly, from Petrarch - but he may have composed the text of No.19 himself: it’s addressed not to a beloved but to his patron, Landgraf Moritz, Italianised as Gran Maurizio.
 
Sette Voci are a small ensemble - actually there are nine singers on this recording, so their maths, like that of The Sixteen, is a bit approximate. They are very lightly accompanied by violone, chitarrone and keyboard (harpsichord or organ). I enjoyed their performance of these works as much as that of Cantus Cölln. You may be attracted by the price advantage of the latter but I see that at least one online supplier is offering the CPO CD for around the same price.
 
Schütz’s sacred music is one of the delights of its period and while I can’t claim that these madrigals quite equal it, they are well worth getting to know in these performances. The recording matches the bright, fresh sound of the singing and the booklet of notes and texts is informative, though printed in a small font.
 
Brian Wilson 



Track listing

No. 1. O Primavera, gioventu de l’anno, SWV1 [3:22]
No. 2. O dolcezze amarissime d’amore, SWV2 [2:33]
No. 3. Selve beate, se sospirando, SWV3 [2:40]
No. 4. Alma afflitta, che fai, SWV4 [2:50]
No. 5. Cosi morir debb’io, SWV5 [2:59]
No. 6. D’orrida selce alpina, SWV6 [3:39]
No. 7. Ride la primavera, SWV7 [3:19]
No. 8. Fuggi, fuggi, o mio core, SWV8 [2:35]
No. 9. Feritevi, ferite, SWV9 [3:12]
No. 10. Fiamma ch’allacia, SWV10 [2:21]
No. 11. Quella damma son io, SWV11 [2:12]
No. 12. Mi saluta costei, SWV12 [2:56]
No. 13. Io moro, SWV13 [2:57]
No. 14. Sospir che del bel petto, SWV14 [3:00]
No. 15. Dunque a Dio, SWV15 [3:21]
No. 16. Tornate, o cari baci, SWV16 [2:16]
No. 17. Di marmo siete voi, SWV17 [2:45]
No. 18. Giunto e pur, Lidia, SWV18 [2:48]
No. 19. Vasto mar, nel cui seno, SWV19 [3:49]