Schütz: Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr, SWV 348

The pieces on this recording demonstrate the consummate art with which the German composers reconciled the new ideas imported from Italy at the very beginning of the 17th century (the principle of the basso continuo, accompanied monody, the concertato technique) with local traditions, thereby giving birth to works of a subtle beauty and an almost inexhaustible richness. This stylistic revolution paved the way to the flourishing of great forms like the vocal solo, the spiritual concert, the cantata, etc. cultivated by composers as different as Schütz, Buxtehude, Tunder and Erlebach: in the very heart of Baroque Europe the Germans were taking their place.

Recording made in 2003.

Capella Augustana is recording the complete works of Schütz for Brilliant Classics, which will consist of 30 CDs.

Comprehensive booklet essay and sung texts.

Heinrich Schütz lived a long and successful life, and studied with some of the greatest masters of the time, including Monteverdi and Giovanni Gabrieli. He is generally considered to be the greatest German composer of the early Baroque. Travelling between positions in Copenhagen, Kassel and Dresden, his life was hit by personal tragedies – he outlived his wife and all his children, and the Thirty Years War severely disrupted his employment. This CD contains selections from two of his three sets of Symphoniae Sacrae. The first set, composed in 1629, uses Latin texts, whilst the second and third sets are set to German texts. Schütz’s genius lay in his ability to set words to music. The rhythmic strength of his music lies in his ability to capture the nuances of the words, and this skill enabled him to make a major contribution to Luther’s aim of establishing the vernacular as the literary and liturgical language of the Protestant religion. A similar move had been made in England with the adoption of English rather than Latin in sacred music with the introduction of The Book of Common Prayer in the mid-16th century.