Schütz: Christmas Vespers / McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort and

Schütz: Christmas Vespers / McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort and Players
- Music
Heinrich SchÃ¼tz's Christmas Story, besides being a historical milestone, has always been one of 17th-century music's crowd-pleasers--the former because it's the ancestor of Christmas oratorios by Bach, Charpentier, and even Berlioz; the latter because it presents engaging depictions of the characters in the Nativity story with a cornucopia of colorful instruments (piping recorders for the shepherds, a galumphing bassoon (representing the gait of the camels?) for the three wise men, regally blaring cornets for King Herod, and pompous trombones for his priests). As you might expect, there are a number of fine recordings of this proto-oratorio, from the graceful and somewhat delicate rendition of RenÃ© Jacobs to the high-energy performance of Robert King. As usual, Paul McCreesh goes where no one has gone before, showing us the context for which SchÃ¼tz probably wrote the work in the first place: a Christmas Day Vespers service at the court in Dresden where the composer was chapel master. McCreesh's reconstruction includes thrilling performances of two Christmas hymns (with tunes by Luther himself), organ music by Scheidt, a psalm from SchÃ¼tz's collection Psalmen Davids, a delicate motet for four soloists, and (in an electrifying reading) a lavish multiple-choir Magnificat. Alongside all these, McCreesh's rendition of the Christmas Story seems--well, not lackluster, exactly (it's very skillfully done, and Susan Hemington Jones as the Angel is a particular treat), but a bit less inspired than the rest of the program. So if that one work is all you care about, you may want to consider the Jacobs or King versions; otherwise, this disc won't disappoint--it's as exciting a Christmas record as you'll find. --Matthew Westphal
Country USA
Brand ARCHIV
Manufacturer Archiv Prod Import
Binding Audio CD
ItemPartNumber 028946304624
ReleaseDate 1999-08-13
UnitCount 1
Format Import
UPCs 028946304624
EANs 0028946304624

Country	USA
Brand	ARCHIV
Manufacturer	Archiv Prod Import
Binding	Audio CD
ItemPartNumber	028946304624
ReleaseDate	1999-08-13
UnitCount	1
Format	Import
UPCs	028946304624
EANs	0028946304624

Schütz: Christmas Vespers / McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort and Players

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