Schütz - Opus Ultimum - Harmonia Mundi: HMC901895/96 - download

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If not texturally pared down, this is a journey where the 86-year-old Schütz withdraws from the world in a lexicon of finely drawn plainchants, antique modes, taut contrapuntal and antiphonal... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 7th May 2007
Catalogue No: HMC901895/96
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Length: 88 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

7th May 2007
Gramophone Magazine

June 2007

Editor's Choice

Schütz: Opus ultimum

Work length1:28:45

$14.20

$17.75

Collegium Vocale Gent, Concerto Palatino
Philippe Herreweghe

Psalm 119. Aleph und Beth. "Wohl denen, die ohne Wandel leben" SWV 482

Track length5:13

$1.00

$1.25

Psalm 119. Gimel und Daleth. "Tue wohl deinem Knechte, daß ich lebe" SWV 483

Track length5:18

$1.00

$1.25

Psalm 119. He und Vav. "Zeige mir, Herr, den Weg deiner Rechte" SWV 484

Track length5:44

$1.00

$1.25

Psalm 119. Dsaïn und Chet. "Gedenke deinem Knechte an dein Wort" SWV 485

Track length6:20

$1.00

$1.25

Psalm 119. Thet und Jod. "Du tust Guts deinem Knechte" SWV 486

Track length6:56

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$1.25

Psalm 119. Caph und Lamed. "Meine Seele verlanget nach deinem Heil" SWV 487

Track length6:55

$1.00

$1.25

Psalm 119. Mem und Nun. "Wie habe ich dein Gesetze so lieb" SWV 488

Track length8:19

$1.20

$1.50

Psalm 119. Samech und Aïn. "Ich hasse die Flattergeister" SWV 489

Track length7:02

$1.20

$1.50

Psalm 119. Pe und Zade. "Deine Zeugnisse sind wunderbarlich" SWV 490

Track length6:11

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$1.25

Psalm 119. Koph und Resch. "Ich rufe von ganzem Herzen" SWV 491

Track length7:42

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Psalm 119. Schin und Tav. "Die Fürsten verfolgen mich ohn Ursach" SWV 492

Track length8:11

$1.20

$1.50

Psalm 100. "Jauchzet dem Herren, alle Welt" SWV 493

Track length7:17

$1.20

$1.50

Deutsches Magnificat. "Meine Seele erhebt den Herren" SWV 494

Track length7:37

$1.20

$1.50

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Recording of the Week, Schütz's Legacy

7th May 2007

Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent performed the German baroque master’s ‘Opus ultimum’, a series of eleven motets for double choir setting Psalm 119.

The swansong of Heinrich Schütz.

In the early 1660s, Schütz, now relegated among the faded glories of the Dresden court, began to prepare for the idea of his own death - he was now more than 65 years old... He embarked on a setting of all 176 verses of Psalm 119, without necessarily expecting the resulting work to be performed: his swansong was conceived for all eternity. Ten years later, this Opus ultimum had assumed the form of 11 motets for double choir. Since the manuscripts were dispersed after his death, it was to be another three centuries before the work was reconstructed - and then sung!

Reviews

2010

If not texturally pared down, this is a journey where the 86-year-old Schütz withdraws from the world in a lexicon of finely drawn plainchants, antique modes, taut contrapuntal and antiphonal exchanges, melodic swathes and quicksilver declamations.
Herreweghe illuminates each verse with a considered and gentle ear for the progression from the 'statutes' of faith towards a sense of hope and salvation as we move towards a new Covenant, revealed in the final motet with its assuaging supplications and rock-like assurance.
Here we sense, above all, Schütz's mix of defiance and resignation for the gradual passing of a selfcontained sacred tradition threatened by radical worldly things (like operas).
Collegium Vocale relish Schütz's introspection and easy exchange between solo and tutti sections, which allow the inspired rhetorical mood-changes to reveal each marked-out image ('when thou shalt enlarge my heart' at the end in the second motet is dealt a moment of special attention as it moves towards a conclusion in rapt homage to Monteverdi). Herreweghe's performances are generally outstanding in their attention to detail: some might quibble that the inner tutti voices occasionally lack focus and energy, but this is a performance where Schütz's seasoned harmonic shifts are treated as pure music and not over-accentuated by rhetorical zeal: the music doesn't need it. Can a greater work have been completed by an octogenarian? This recording urges us, very persuasively, to think perhaps not.

June 2007

…the beauty of this remarkable performance of Schütz's last work resides principally in Collegium Vocale's blooming cradle of sound and how is unassumingly stakes its claim… on the unique ambitions of Schütz's "Swansong". …the doubling of the two four-part choirs with brass gives Herreweghe scope for a variety and scale which ensures that graphic representation emerges from a palette of irradiating luxuriance.

Schütz - Opus Ultimum

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Recording of the Week, Schütz's Legacy

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