This is the first time,
and probably the last, that I’ve written
a review shorter than the actual headnote.
One look above however will indicate
the rather miscellaneous and quixotic
nature of this programme of three CDs,
which ranges from fanfares, dances,
and organ solos (Ton Koopman, the biggest
name here apart from the single Dowland
song taken by Peter Schreier) to Masses
and Psalms. The focus, naturally, is
Italian, with Northern European influences
apparent and Germany solidly led by
Schütz. Most of the pieces are
extracts from longer works, of course
– thus we get the Nisi Dominus from
Monteverdi’s Vespers and one movement
from Palestrina’s Missa sine nomine
(the Kyrie) and so on. I wouldn’t go
so far as to call it a Greatest Hits
collection (because the Englishman William
Brade, however influential on the Continent,
hardly features in those kind of compilations)
but it bears all the marks of what it
seems to be – mainly radio productions
of Renaissance music compiled in a not
very easily digestible box.
Let’s cut to the chase.
Some of the studio acoustics are slightly
clinical; Monteverdi and Gabrieli don’t
really expand optimally in these circumstances
but few of these performances are less
than dedicated if none is really outstanding.
hr brass – it’s lower case – is led
by Edward Tarr and they do well by Gabrieli’s
Symphoniae Sacrae; another recurrent
feature is the lute ensemble Lautten
Compagney who are good in Brade but
perhaps even better in Vincenzo Galilei’s
Contrapuncto primo, a mere two minutes
of considerable worth. Koopman appears
fleetingly but to good effect in Scheidemann.
The Schütz Academy under Howard
Arman is also a welcome visitor across
the discs though the tenors can prove
a mite fallible (in such as Monteverdi’s
Psalm; Dixit Dominus for example). "Schreier
sings Dowland" is not so unusual
an idea – though he does sing it in
German, which is. One of the highlights
of the second disc is the playing of
the Blechbläserensemble Ludwig
Güttler in Thomas Simpson’s La
mia Salome, a sliver from the ballet
music but punchy, with fine lower brass
and full of life. The Lautten Compagney
(authentic spelling is ruinous for one’s
spellchecker I find) hit a rich seam
with the rocky-folksy Französisches
Liedlein from the pen of the clearly
remarkable Johann Stobaeus, about whom
the notes are silent (he served the
Dukes of Brandenburg in the 1620s).
There’s only 1.51 of him here (it’s
that kind of set) but enough to make
me want to hear more – much more. The
Lasso songs receive an intimate and
expressive reading and we end the second
disc with Mieke van der Sluis (soprano)
and Axel Köhler (counter-tenor)
with the Lautten Compagney in the final
duet from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione
di Poppea – an attractively scaled
soprano and counter-tenor with delightful
lute support. Hr brass return in the
final disc for more top class Gabrieli
and the Schütz Akademie impress
with the long Monteverdi Gloria a 7
voci – at twelve minutes or so it is,
barring Michael Praetorius’ Meine Seele
erhebt den Herren, the longest track
in the set. Sluis and Köhler reprise
the impression they made earlier with
another tonally integrated performance
in O bone Jesu.
The acoustics can,
as I suggested earlier, incline toward
the glacial on occasion but the target
audience for a compilation of this sort
will not be too alarmed by that. Obviously
no specialists will find this of very
much interest but there are texts in
German and English and the original
Italian or Latin, where relevant, and
succinct not over-comprehensive notes
as well. It’s the kind of anthology
that includes Byrd’s The Earle of Oxford’s
March but excludes any movements from
his Masses – but one shouldn’t be too
precious about it. It offers a panorama
of sorts and that’s no bad thing.
Jonathan Woolf
Meister
der Renaissance 
CAPRICCIO 67 088/90 [3 CDs 67.46 + 60.21
+ 71.35] 
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details