MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

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


CD REVIEW

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

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS


Philipp Heinrich ERLEBACH (1657-1714)
Die Liebe Gottes ist ausgegossen - Cantatas CD 1
Ich will euch wiedersehen, cantata for Easter Monday [10:10]
Siehe, um Trost war mir sehr bange, cantata for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity [13:11]
Held, du hast den Feind gebunden, cantata for Easter [08:19]
Unruhige Gedanken, stellt alles Sorgen ein, aria for tenor, 2 violins and bc [11:56]
Die Liebe Gottes ist ausgegossen, cantata for Pentecost [12:33]
CD 2
Wer sind diese mit weißen Kleidern angetan, cantata for the 1st Sunday after Trinity [09:38]
Betrübtes Herz, erfreue dich!, aria for alto, bass, 2 violins and bc [12:13]
Ach daß ich Wassers gnug hätte, cantata for the 10th Sunday after Trinity [14:24]
Fürchtet euch nicht: Siehe ich verkündige große Freude, cantata for Christmas [10:25]
Dorothee Mields, Margaret C. Hunter (soprano); Alexander Schneider (alto); Andreas Post (tenor); Matthias Vieweg (bass)
Les Amis de Philippe/Ludger Rémy
rec. June-July 2007, Gertrudiskirche in Saalfeld-Graba, Germany. DDD
CPO 7773462 [56:21 + 46:51]

 

Experience Classicsonline


Johann Heinrich Erlebach shares the fate of many composers of his time: a large part of his oeuvre has been lost. In this particular case it was the fire which hit the castle of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in 1735 which destroyed many of his works." Ironically it was the great appreciation of the court for its former Kapellmeister which caused this tragedy: after Erlebach's death it purchased all his music from his widow. At the same time Erlebach's reputation among his colleagues is the reason a respectable number of his compositions have come down to us as musicians collected and exchanged them to be performed where they were working. Still, we only have a relatively small number of the about 750 works Erlebach seems to have composed. He wrote music in all genres, both vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular. In one of his writings a contemporary poet also gives evidence of Erlebach's reputation, as the title character says: "From there I came to Rudolstadt, where Mr. Erlebach is music director to Count von Schwarzburg and among German composers gives the most satisfaction and outstandingly distinguishes himself".

The commemoration of Erlebach's birth in 2007 was the obvious reason for Ludger Rémy recording some of his sacred music. This set of discs gives a good idea of Erlebach's style and its development through the years. The earlier cantatas are strongly rooted in the 17th century, of which the scoring of two independent viola parts is an indication, whereas the latest works are two arias, in which Erlebach embraces the modern principle of the da capo.

According to a German scholar who studied Erlebach's life and works the texts of five of the seven compositions recorded here were written by the theologian Christoph Helm (?-1748) who from 1696 to 1704 acted as ducal informer and choirmaster at the court of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. In his texts he combines biblical passages with free poetry. Most pieces are written in the style of the so-called 'concerto-aria cantata' - also frequently used by Dietrich Buxtehude - in which a biblical passage opens the work and is followed by some strophic arias.

What is impressive in Erlebach's cantatas is that he is able to deal with this rather strict form in a very creative way. He was helped by Helm's texts which are characterised by strong contrasts in Affekt. The cantata 'Die Liebe Gottes ist ausgegossen' is written for Pentecost and begins with a quotation from St Paul's Letter to the Romans (V:5). This is repeated at the end of the cantata, and in between several other verses from the same chapter are quoted as well. The scoring is notable for the use of two sopranos and three viola parts. In this cantata we see several features of Erlebach's style, like the mixture of homophonic and polyphonic elements, frequent text expression through the use of musical figures and changes in tempo and metre, fugal passages, the use of instrumental ritornellos and an alternation of soli and tutti, often without interruption.

Some cantatas have an instrumental introduction, sometimes these are very short and fully integrated in the first vocal passage. A special case is 'Wer sind diese mit weißen Kleidern angetan' which is in two parts, both of which begin with an instrumental movement. The scoring is also remarkable as it contains four parts for viols - here played by violas. The whole cantata consists of biblical passages and was part of a larger work which Erlebach composed for the funeral of Countess Maria Susanna, the younger sister of Count Albert Anton of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. This cantata is the only part of this music - which originally consisted of seven pieces - which has come down to us, which is a great shame considering its strongly expressive character.

Two of the compositions in this collection are 'arias', for either one voice ('Unruhige Gedanken') or two voices ('Betrübtes Herz'). They are from a collection of twelve arias published in Rudolstadt in 1704. Here we find Erlebach embracing the da capo technique: in each stanza the opening line is repeated at the end. But these pieces are still far away from the arias which we know from - for instance - Bach's sacred cantatas. It is therefore certainly right that the ornamentation used in these performances is rather moderate. Both arias end with a four-part section, which is a kind of appendix. In the introduction to the collection Erlebach explains that the "concluding ensemble with four voices and two violins" can be performed, insofar as is possible or necessary, not only to conclude the cantata but also at its beginning and end or, if need be, can be omitted.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand why some music has been neglected for such a long time. That is definitely the case here: the quality of these seven sacred works by Erlebach is such that this production is an important and exciting addition to the catalogue. No-one interested in German music of this era should miss it. The performance is first class: the scoring with just four voices is certainly justifiable for historical and stylistic reasons - although the addition of four ripieno singers is an interesting and defendable option - and the four singers here are an ideal match. The instrumental ensemble plays its parts with great expression and good understanding of the texts.

The booklet contains a very extensive essay on the music, with a detailed analysis of most pieces performed here. It is very good and interesting, although perhaps a bit too elaborate for a CD production. You also get the lyrics with an English translation. I strongly recommend this production and very much hope that more of Erlebach's vocal oeuvre will be recorded.

For those interested in Erlebach I would like to recommend recordings of the two extant instrumental collections: the sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and bc with Rodolfo Richter (Linn Records) and the six orchestral overtures with the Berliner Barock-Compagney (Berlin Classics). Also recommendable is a disc by the Chicago Baroque Ensemble which contains some of the sonatas as well as four secular arias (Centaur).

Johan van Veen




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos 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

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.