Ich will schweigen : Johann Hermann Schein and the
Leipzig Stadtpfeifer tradition
Full detailed contents after review
Alice Foccroulle (soprano)
Béatrice Mayo-Felip (soprano)
Reinoud Van Mechelen (tenor)
Marc Meisel (organ: a = 440-442 Hz; tuned in meantone temperament with
7 pure thirds (D#/ E-flat at compromise pitch)).
InAlto/Lambert Colson
rec. January 2014, Gottorf Castle, Schleswig, Germany. DDD.
CD booklet includes texts and translations - not supplied with
download.
Reviewed as 24-bit lossless download, also available in mp3
and 16-bit lossless.
RAMÉE RAM1401 [62:42]
Johann Hermann Schein, Kantor of the church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig
from 1616, was one of a group of North German composers who were sensible
to the new style coming out of Italy. Of that group Schütz is the best
known. It’s high time that Schein, Scheidt and Demantius also came
into their own. There are several recordings of Schein’s Israels
Brünnlein (Fontana d’Israel) – review
of most recent* – and there are recordings of his lighter music, Banchetto
Musicale of 1617 (in A Musical Banquet, Hesperion XX on a
Virgin/Erato budget twofer 5620282, with music by the Gabrielis and
Scheidt), so this recording which casts its net wider is very welcome.
The sub-title of this collection is Johann Hermann Schein and the
Leipzig Stadtpfeifer tradition, since he uses instruments such as
the cornet, trombone and dulcian, as employed by the Stadtpfeifer
and Ratsmusiker, guilds of instrumentalists attached to the City
of Leipzig since the 15th century. As Schein was J.S. Bach’s predecessor
at the Thomaskirche, the programme ends appropriately with JSB’s music,
taking in Johann Schelle, Gottfried Reiche and others along the way
and thus providing an interesting pendant to the Carus recording of
Bach’s predecessors:Thomaskantoren vor Bach (83.342 – review
and review).
The music is all attractive: apart from the opening work, included in
the Banchetto Musicale, and the other short instrumental pieces
interspersed, all Schein’s music here is religious. Some of the works
attributed to Schütz may actually be music which he brought back from
Venice. There’s no such problem of attribution with any of the music
in this programme; it’s often highly indebted to the likes of the Gabrielis,
but none the worse for that. There’s no indication that the Thirty
Years War was devastating swathes of North Germany at the time – none
of the sparsity of scoring found in Schütz’s Passions of the period.
Several of the works included here have no rivals in the current UK
catalogue. Performances from the three soloists and the instrumentalists
make a strong case for this repertoire and the late 16th-century
organ of Gottorf Castle is ideal for the music.
The 24-bit download from eclassical.com
sounds fine but the lack of a booklet is a serious problem. The classicsonline.com
download is in mp3 only but comes with booklet. Subscribers to Naxos
Music Library will also find the booklet there. It contains the
texts in German and Latin with English and French translations. The
English versions are not always idiomatic: the Book of Common Prayer
offers a more poetic version of Ich will schweigen (Psalm 39)
and one more in keeping with Luther’s German: I became dumb, and opened
not my mouth; for it was thy doing./Take thy plague away from me: I
am even consumed by the means of thy heavy hand./When thou with rebukes
dost chasten man for sin, thou makest his beauty to consume away, like
as it were a moth fretting a garment: every man therefore is but vanity.
This is a collection to which I shall be returning.
* I’m also pleased to see Konrad Junghänel’s benchmark recording with
Cantus Cölln back in circulation at mid-price (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
88697568802).
Brian Wilson
Detailed contents :
Johann Hermann SCHEIN (1586-1630) Canzon a5 ‘Corollarium’ (1615)
[4:19]; Ich will schweigen [5:53]
Johann KRIEGER (1652-1735) Fantasia in d (1697) [1:50]
Johann Hermann SCHEIN Exaudiat te Dominus (1626)
[8:16]; Suite VII (1617) [7:48]
Heinrich BACH (1615-1692) Erbarm dich mein, O Herre Gott
[3:05]
Johann Hermann SCHEIN Erbarm dich mein, O Herre Gott
(1618) [3:25]
Gottfried REICHE (1667-1734) Fuga XII à 4 (1696) [3:13]
Johann Hermann SCHEIN Herr Christ, der einig Gottes
Sohn (1618) [1:58]
Johann SCHELLE (1648-1701) Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
[2:15]
Gottfried REICHE Sonatina à 4 (1696) [3:21]
Johann Hermann SCHEIN Mach dich auf, werde Licht
(1626) [6:32]; Paduana à 4 (1617) [2:09]
Heinrich SCHEIDEMANN (1595-1663) In dich hab ich gehoffet,
Herr [5:42]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) Fuga sopra Durch Adams Fall
ist ganz verderbt, BWV705 [2:47]
