Rating: 4/5
Review:
Excellent performance, slightly odd music
This is yet another very fine recording by Magnificat. It’s a bit
of a departure from their usual Renaissance repertoire but they
perform Schütz with all the skill, insight and beauty of sound of
their previous discs.
I have struggled
with Schütz in the past. In the notes for this disc, Gregory S.
Johnson says, “The works, perfectly crafted, are composed in a
learned, contrapuntal style rich in dissonance and range of
expression,” and speaks of “Gesualdo-esque harmonic twists.”
This pretty much sums up why I find Schütz quite a tough listen.
However, these Cantiones sacrae are rather less wild and harmonically
strange than some of his other work and, for me anyway, musically
more approachable.
The performances are
excellent. Philip Cave has assembled a fine group of singers and
instrumentalists and they all plainly really get this music. The
choral sound is beautiful, they engage fully with the text and there
is a perfect balance between the singers and continuo players who add
a lovely, subtle texture to the music. The recorded sound is
outstanding – but it’s Linn, so of course it is. I still can’t
say that this is my favourite repertoire, which is why I have given
this disc four stars rather than five, but it’s certainly a
five-star performance.
(And I'm sorry to
say that when I came across Turbabor, sed non perturbabor, I
wondered whether this was how Iacomus Vinculum might order his
Martini…
I’ll get me coat.)
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