Felix MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (1809-1847)
Te Deum, MWV B 15 [33:58]
Hora est, MWV B 18 [7:48]
Ave Maria, MWV B 19 [6:03]
Sonntraud Engels-Benz (continuo organ, organ)
Kammerchor Stuttgart/Frieder Bernius
rec. June 2020, Evangelische Kirche, Gönningen, Reutlingen, Germany
Sung Latin texts, German translation
HÄNSSLER CLASSIC HC20034 [47:53]
“With his many compositions of sacred vocal music Felix Mendelssohn left a legacy of his most important creative efforts.” (Hermann Kretzschmar, 1895)
Renowned conductor and chorus director Frieder Bernius turns his attention to three of Mendelssohn’s settings of Latin text from the Roman Catholic liturgy: Te Deum, Hora est and Ave Maria. A champion of Mendelssohn’s choral works, he founded the Kammerchor Stuttgart in 1968. In 1983-2007 they recorded the composer’s complete sacred choral music for the Carus label (review).
Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Felix Mendelssohn was seven when he was baptised in the Lutheran faith. He went on to write over fifty sacred choral works, mainly in the Lutheran tradition, but had no qualms about setting the Latin texts of the Roman Mass Ordinary, which he seemed to relish. He also wrote magnificent works for Anglican Liturgy and a setting of the 100th Psalm for the Hamburg synagogue.
Bernius chose pieces related to Mendelssohn’s association with the Berliner Singakademie, the choral society founded in 1791, where he was a chorister and pupil of academy leader Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832). Mendelssohn was in good company: Bach, also a Lutheran, had set a number of Latin texts, including his sacred choral masterpiece, the Mass in B minor BWV232. Mendelssohn greatly admired and promoted Bach’s music, then all but forgotten. Soon after writing the motet Hora est, Mendelssohn led the landmark 1829 revival of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Singakademie.
Mendelssohn’s favourite setting through the years, Te Deum laudamus (o God, we praise thee), is a great hymn to the glory of God and a declaration of faith traditionally sung on occasions of rejoicing. It is sometimes called the Ambrosian Hymn of praise: St. Ambrose is now considered an improbable author of the text. Composers whom it inspired include Victoria, Purcell, Handel, Charpentier, Lully, Haydn, Berlioz, Bruckner, Verdi, Bizet, Stanford, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Britten, Pärt, Jenkins, Rutter and MacMillan. Bach’s Herr Gott! dich loben wir BWV725 is a Lutheran version of Te Deum. Mendelssohn designed his 1826 Te Deum in twelve sections, scoring it for eight voices in two SATB choirs and organ.
In the spirit of early Italian sacred music, Mendelssohn set Hora est (the hour has come, or it is time). The Latin text concerns the hour when the dead rise from their sleep as salvation is near. Mendelssohn wrote the motet in 1828 for his sister Fanny’s birthday. It may have been first heard the next year at the Singakademie during rehearsals for St. Matthew Passion. The polychoral Hora est is scored for sixteen voices in four SATB choirs with organ; the Kammerchor Stuttgart is in great form, and the performance has quite an effect.
Ave Maria is the second of Three Sacred Pieces Op. 23. An engaging work, the eight-part Ave Maria was written in 1830 during a trip to Italy when Mendelssohn visited the Vatican. It was some time later when he added the organ accompaniment. It is beautifully rendered by the choir. Tenor Jo Holzwarth gloriously sings the solo section of this prayer to the Virgin.
Bernius’s set of Mendelssohn’s complete sacred choral music with the Kammerchor Stuttgart on Carus employed elements of historically informed performance practice. At the beginning, in 1983, he had fifty to sixty highly trained singers, a number he estimated to be roughly enough for the sound produced by the two hundred amateur members of the Berliner Singakademie in Mendelssohn’s time. In this recording, Kammerchor Stuttgart are pared down to just over twenty. Bernius can use fewer singers and fill the solo parts from within the choir’s own ranks because of improved training and ‘advanced ensemble techniques’. Indeed, in Hora est Bernius believes that only sixteen soloists can achieve ‘the transparency of the polyphonic movement’, not possible with more singers.
The Kammerchor Stuttgart has impressive sincerity, clarity of tone and precision. Yet, the precision does not come at the expense of character. This precious quality I believe enhances the effectiveness of this performance. The chorus never loses sight of the intrinsic devotional nature of the sacred texts. Sonntraud Engels-Benz provides the organ contributions.
The recording at the Evangelische Kirche in Gönningen has a satisfying sound quality that serves the music well. The booklet has sung texts in Latin, with German translations (disappointing in an album aimed at the international market). The short running time is a drawback. Even so, Mendelssohn’s glorious settings of sacred Latin text are given inspiring and reverential performances. Without doubt, I enjoyed this album from start to finish.
Michael Cookson
