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]
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