Rademann’s Schütz Project Concludes!

Christopher Spätner’s portrait of Heinrich Schütz, appropriated by Carus-Verlag for the covers of all of Rademann’s Schütz albums (painted around 1660, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

At the beginning of this month, Carus-Verlag released the nineteenth volume in Hans-Christoph’s Rademann’s project to record the complete works of Heinrich Schütz. According to the accompanying booklet, this is the project’s final volume. Thus, since 2006 when the project was launched, a total of 26 CDs have been released, accounting for the fact that some of the volumes consist of more than one disc.

When compared with the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (or even just the sacred music), this makes for a relatively modest collection; but it is still an impressive achievement in its own right. Indeed, Bach was influenced by Schütz; but of much greater interest is the fact that, thanks to the inflation of religious conflicts into military ones, as both student and practitioner Schütz was equally at home in Dresden and Venice. Schütz first visited Venice to study with Giovanni Gabrieli; but the city would later provide him with refuge from the Thirty Years’ War in a setting in which he could work with Claudio Monteverdi as a colleague.

The title of the final volume is Madrigale & Hochzeitsmusiken (madrigals and wedding music). This is not the title of a publication by either Schütz or any of his contemporaries. Indeed, a scan of the track listings shows that the SWV (Schütz-Werke-Verzeichnis) catalog numbers are not consecutive. Basically, these are madrigal-style compositions, some of which are suitable for nuptial ceremonies conducted in the church while others were probably intended for more secular festivities. Thus, the text sources are drawn not only from the Book of Psalms and the Song of Songs but also from German poets of the time, such as Martin Opitz. Furthermore, two of the selections are being recorded for the very first time: SWV 459, “Saget den Gästen” (“Tell them which are bidden,” King James Bible translation from the Gospel of Matthew) and SWV 474, “Ach, wie soll ich doch in Freuden leben” (“Ah, how should I live in happiness,” unknown source).

The resources for this final recording include six vocal soloists joined by the Dresdner Kammerchor, which Rademann founded in 1985. There is a rich variety of instrumental resources, which seem to be deployed according to the instrumentation found in the eighteen-volume edition of Schütz’ complete works published by Breitkopf & Härtel between 1885 and 1927 and edited by Philipp Spitta, Arnold Schering, and Heinrich Spitta. For the most part these selections have the intimacy of chamber music, although SWV 474 requires three instrumental choirs (lutes, three viols, and three trombones), as well as cornett, violin, and continuo accompanying two tenors and one baritone. All of the compositions are relatively brief, making the entire album a thoroughly diverse and engaging journey.