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Very few choirs have never made a Christmas CD.
And the repertoire on this kind of disc suggest that they are made
for ‘family and friends’ rather than the general market. It isn’t
easy to find repertoire which hasn’t been recorded umpteen times
before. This recording is no exception in that in contains familiar
German hymns, like ‘Machet die Tore weit’, ‘Nun komm, der Heiden
Heiland’ and ‘Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen’. But here most of them
are sung in unfamiliar arrangements, mainly from the 19th and 20th
centuries. The booklet fails to give any information about the arrangers,
so I can’t tell who Carl Thiel, Siegfried Strohbach or Hermann Ruck
are. The settings have one thing in common: the harmonic language,
even of the 20th century arrangements, is modest. No experiments
here. Only one setting dates from about the time the original was
composed: ‘Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen’ by Michael Praetorius.
The second half of the programme contains Polish
carols in German translation. It builds a nice contrast to the first
half. Many German songs made it into German hymnals and were sung
in church. But the Polish songs are in the tradition of ‘folk music’,
with their dance rhythms and their fantasy stories about Joseph
and Mary and the shepherds.
The capella vocalis is a relatively young choir
of boys and men, that was founded in 1992. The homogeneity it has
developed in less than 10 years is admirable. Boys and men can be
heard here separately, and both groups are equally good. I don’t
know how many singers the choir has in total, but here fifty singers
are involved. In addition, two violins, viola, cello and double
bass are added in a number of carols.
As much as the qualities of the choir can be admired,
I found it hard to listen to the disc in one sitting. There is a
lack of ‘personality’ and colour in the singing. The interpretation
of these carols is a little monotonous, and there isn’t very much
differentiation in tempo. The German hymns and carols are the best
part. In Lützel’s setting of verses from the 24th Psalm (‘Machet
die Tore weit’) the choir is dialoguing with a small ensemble of
singers and there is also the usual contrast between high and low
voices in the line: "Who is the King of glory?" – "It
is the Lord Zebaoth".
The chorale setting by Praetorius, though, could
have been better articulated on the basis of the text.
The Polish songs are disappointing. In my view,
translations of carols like these generally don’t work. In these
‘popular’ songs there is such a close connection between the original
language and culture and the melodies, that music and text don’t
quite match in a translation. But what is worse is that the original
rhythms are not very well realised. The lively rhythm of ‘An dem
Tag’ is turned here into a kind of military drone. The lightheartedness
of the original has completely disappeared.
This sample illustrates what is wrong with this
recording: it is all very serious and lacks joy and cheerfulness.
I have heard the Polish Nightingales sing their ‘own’ carols much
better. I also find the choir too large and the sound of the strings
obtrusive.
The recording is good, but the texts in the booklet
– German and English – contain too many printing errors. The lack
of information on the arrangers and the music does not help either.
To sum up: this is a good choir, although a little
bland, but in part it chose partly the wrong repertoire here.
Johan van Veen
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C.
THIEL: Es
sungen drei Engel
J.H
LUTZEL: Machet die Tore weit
H.
RUCK: Maria durch ein' Dornwald ging
S.
STROHBACH: O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf
S.
STROHBACH: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
S.
STROHBACH: Es kommt ein Schiff geladen
C.
THIEL: Der Morgenstern ist aufgedrungen
M.
PRAETORIUS: Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen
BARTHOLDY
F. MENDELSSOHN: Gott sei Dank durch alle Welt
W.
HERRMANN: O schlafe, schlafe, gottlicher Knabe
F.
GRUBER: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
A.
MOLLER: Kolenden Polish Christmas carols:
In
stiller Mittnacht
Christus
ist geboren
Triumphe
Gestern
abend, Bruder
Hirten
zogen mit Gesang
Einsamkeit
hullet
Luleise,
Jesulein
Lasst
uns alle ziehn
In
der Krippe
Hirten
bleibt doch steh'n
In
Bethlehem heut
Jesus,
kleiner Knabe
An
dem Tag
Neujahr
zieht her
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Capella Vocalis/Eckhard Weyand
