Tuesday, 23 December 2025

Schütz: The Christmas Story

Day 357

Schütz: The Christmas Story

Yale Schola Cantorum

David Hill

Over the years I have heard a few bits and piece of Schütz, mostly as items in choral concerts where I was playing in other pieces. I can't say that the music has made much of an impression on me one way or another. I felt rather the same about this setting of the Christmas story. Much of it is in fairly fluid recitative - Schütz was at pains to explain that he used the modern ideas of operatic recitative rather than the older plainsong-based approach. This is interpreted with choral interludes with some attractive instrumental writing which is reminiscent of Monteverdi or Gabrieli. The whole thing was perfectly pleasant but didn't really make much of an impact on me.  Again I am pleased to have heard it as it is something which is written about quite a lot, but I don't feel inclined to spend much more time exploring more Schütz.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Mayer: Symphony no 1

 Day 365 Emelie Mayer; Symphony no 1 in C minor NDR Radiophilharmonie  Leo McFall For my final piece in 2025 I continued my exploration of w...