Heinrich Schutz, The National Youth Choir Of Great Britain, Mike Brewer - Die Vogel Unter Dem Himmel

Published Friday 23rd May 2008
Heinrich Schutz, The National Youth Choir Of Great Britain, Mike Brewer - Die Vogel Unter Dem Himmel
Heinrich Schutz, The National Youth Choir Of Great Britain, Mike Brewer - Die Vogel Unter Dem Himmel

STYLE: Choral
RATING 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 46564-
LABEL: Delphian DCD34043
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

On this well presented disc we get to hear something the composer Heinrich Schutz would never have experienced: his music sung by the massed voices of a 140-strong choir. And please note that this is not merely quantity: the National Youth Choir Of Great Britain has quality to spare and under the baton of that doyen of choirmasters, Mike Brewer, and with Paul Baxter's crystal-clear production we are given an astounding aural experience. Schutz was a prolific composer and this selection of some of his sacred choral music shows why his contemporaries revered him as the "Orpheus of our time". Curiously, he wrote no organ music or, if he did, none has survived so to give us a useful musical contrast the vocal items are linked by solo organ pieces by some of Schutz's contemporaries, such as Samuel Scheidt and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, all played by John Kitchen on the powerful Rieger organ of St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. In his own context Schutz was an important link between Italian baroque and northern polyphony but he was to be superseded by his more talented countryman Johann Sebastian Bach. If this disc rescues Schutz from his present obscurity it will be no less than he deserves and any listeners who enjoy excellent choral singing will appreciate the NYC.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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