This morning I turned my attention to the second “category” in the ten-CD collection given the title Sweelinck Collection - Complete Keyboard Music & Psalms, released by Brilliant Classics. As most readers may already know, that category is Psalms; and it consists of three CDs of a cappella performances by the Netherlands Chamber Choir. This accounts for 39 tracks, not all of which are Psalm settings, distributed across three CDs. (For that matter, not all of the tracks are settings of texts from the Book of Psalms!) Conducting is shared across six conductors (in order of first appearance): Peter Phillips, Ton Koopman, William Christie, Jan Boeke, Philippe Herreweghe, and Paul van Nevel.
Having sung in several different a cappella choirs during my high school days, I can confess without embarrassment that I was a sucker for all three of these CDs! All six of the conductors provide a solid account of balance among the diversity of vocal levels; and, at least as far as my own opinion is concerned, each selection finds just the right rhetorical stance to take with the text being sung. The Books of Psalms is probably the most “upbeat” book in the Old Testament; and, to the best of my knowledge, nothing in the New Testament rises to such a joyous level.
The Oude Kerk church in Amsterdam, where Sweelinck worked for most of his mature life
My only regret is that my aging voice cannot keep up with the joyous rhetoric of this movement, but my ears are having a blast in listening to such enthusiastic energy! I have to wonder whether the congregation in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam was as joyous in listening to Sweelinck’s music as I was in encountering these new recordings. My guess is that the church was a dutifully solemn place but that many of the congregants may have left with a snap in their steps after listening to the choir!
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