Schütz: Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, SWV 386

Recording locations: Recorded live: Paris/Zürich, July 2000

Cantatas for the second and third Sunday after Trinity, recorded live in July 2000.

Performing to an audience of more than 1200, we join Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists at the halfway point of their Bach Cantata pilgrimage for a concert in one of the great architectural landmarks of Catholic Europe, the Basilisque Saint-Denis (Basilica Cathedral of Saint Denis).

Featuring internationally acclaimed soloists including James Gilchrist, Lisa Larsson, Daniel Taylor and Stephen Varcoe, the programme opens with BWV 2 Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from Heaven), based upon Martin Luther’s German hymn adaptation of Psalm 12. The psalm describes how easily man is led astray by heresy and Bach deals with such grim subject matter by resorting to composing in an archaic motet style. The result is austere beauty and has the engrossing quality of ritualised worship. There then follows BWV 10

Schütz’s superb motet Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (The heavens are telling of God in glory) follows. This is a motet that John Eliot remembers fondly, since it is a work he has known since he was six and he can still hear his father’s ringing tenor declaiming its powerful text. The concert ends with Bach’s prodigious cantata, BWV 76 Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, a lengthy and complex bipartite cantata, comprising fourteen movements and divided into two equal parts.

We then head to Zürich to hear Gardiner and his Monteverdi forces perform within the stunning Fraumünster Kirche, distinctive for its slender, blue spire. They open with the two-part Weimar Cantata BWV 21 Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I had much affliction), considered to be ‘…one of the most extraordinary and inspired of Bach’s vocal works’, as stated by John Eliot Gardiner in his booklet note. There then follows BWV 135 Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (O, Lord, I poor sinner). This is superb music and Bach concludes with a rousing ‘Glory to God’, to the Passion chorale by Cyriakus Schneegaß (1597).

With only two cantatas for this Sunday in existence, the concert ends with Bach’s so-called Triple Concerto, BWV 1044 (Concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord). Despite its similarity to Brandenburg Concerto No.5, it seems to inhabit a different stylistic milieu to that of Bach’s other concerti – one much close to that of his eldest sons.

“This ongoing recording project ranks as one of the musical events of the decade.” The Observer

Commissioned for the funeral of a prince, this German ‘burial music’ deals with subjects that lie at the heart of Schütz’s output: the misery of earthly life and the promise of the hereafter. In a mood of searing intensity, the music arranges texts from Scripture to form a veritable ‘funeral mass’.

Christmas with the Stuttgart Hymnus Choirboys, a choir looking back on 111 years of tradition. The spectrum of their new release on this freshly recorded Super Audio CD ranges over the centuries, from Eccard and Schütz by way of Bach and Brahms through to Reda and Willcocks. Fully dimensioned motets, intimate choral pieces, and festive polychoral compositions resonating throughout the sacred space of the church interior are represented on this release. The choir director Rainer Johannes Homburg can draw on substantial instrumental resources: the organ, cello, and violone form the basso continuo are joined by three percussionists!

GRAMMY® Award winners in 2009, The King’s Singers are one of the world’s most celebrated ensembles. Their programming concept in this disc is unique: built upon the individual clauses of The Lord’s Prayer, beginning and ending in plainchant, it ranges over the centuries to explore the spiritually charged text. Chant is at the heart of the programme, and each composer’s setting illuminates the others, shedding rich interpretative light on the poetic and devotional aspects of the prayer.

One of the world’s most celebrated ensembles, The King’s Singers have a packed schedule of concerts, recordings, media and education work that spans the globe. Championing the work of both young and established composers, they are instantly recognisable for their spot-on intonation, impeccable vocal blend, flawless articulation of the text and incisive timing. They are also consummate entertainers: a class act with a delightfully British wit.

(arr. for brass ensemble)

The massed voices of the 140-strong National Youth Choir revel in the magnificently soaring lines of Schütz’s sacred music, complemented by John Kitchen’s contributions on the powerful Rieger organ of St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh. Revered by his contemporaries as the ‘Orpheus of our time’, Schütz would never have heard his music performed by forces such as these and on such a scale – surely he would have been a strong advocate of this astounding aural experience. Kitchen’s solo contributions contextualise the choral music with organ works by Samuel Scheidt and other contemporaries of Schütz.

The 2011 10-CD bargain boxes from harmonia mundi from the hm gold collection. We know from experience that these will sell out quickly: incredible price, limited edition, while stocks last.

Featuring the following discs, originally released between 1987 and 2005:

HMC901634/35 BACH Brandeburg Concertos / Akamus

HMC901298 CHARPENTIER / Te Deum / Arts Flos

HMU907010 HANDEL WaterMusick / McGegan

HMC901261 SCHÜTZ Musikalische Exequien / Herreweghe

HMC901684 BLOW Venus & Adonis / Jacobs

HMC901406/07 CORELLI Concerti grossi op.6 / Banchini

HMC901108 MONTEVERDI Ballo dell’ingrate / Christie

HMC901366 VIVALDI Sonate la Follia / Ens. 415