CD Schutz

“Him alone did they call the Father of all musicians, to whom the Germans were indebted for enabling them now to bring music to a standard equal to that of the Italians, if not even higher”. So wrote Johann Mattheson in 1740 in praise of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), the most revered German musician of his generation. On this CD the ensemble inAlto present works by Schütz himself, but also by some of his students, which show why Schütz was such a good teacher, who handed on his talent to the following generation.

With the Thirty Years’ War raging around them, Lutherans considered death to be the true fulfillment of their earthly life. Prince Heinrich von Reuss organised all the details of his funeral in advance, from the music that would be sung - to be composed and then performed by Heinrich Schütz during the funeral ceremony - to the coffin itself.

"Il Primo libro di Madrigali", Venedig, 1611, at Gardano

In a memorial from 1651, Heinrich Schutz gave an account of his life, retracting the formative years in Venice from 1609 when he began to "study music with the utmost diligence. With the help of God I attained such fame that after three years (one year before I left Italy for home) I had my first little piece of music printed in Italian, earning extravagant praise from the most distinguished musicians in Venice…"

Heinrich Schütz - Musikalische Exequien & Motetten / Johann Herman Schein - Suite Nr. 10
Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben, Rainer Johannes Homburg / Musica Fiata
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 291 MB | Full Artwork: 130 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Scene" # 902 1784-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Sacred, Vocal

"This new SACD by the Hymnus Choirboys of Stuttgart and Musica Fiata demonstrates how Schütz worked with opulent Italian impressions while serving as court chapel master in Dresden and employs the finest 2+2+2 technique to transport lavish sound and Venetian grandezza straight to you in your living room…" ~prestoclassical

The New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Zubin Mehta and Lorin Maazel are among the distinguished Berlioz interpreters on hand as you behold the immortal Symphonie Fantastique and hours of other renowned works by this immensely influential orchestral innovator. Also: Harold in Italy; Tristia for Chorus and Orchestra; Les Troyens: Prelude; Roman Carnival Overture; King Lear Overture for Orchestra; Beatrice et Benedict: Overture; Requiem (Grande Messe Des Morts) for Tenor, Chorus and Orchestra; Veni Creator: Motet for 3 Voices and Chorus; Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale for Band, Strings and Chorus Ad Lib , and more!

By 1648, Heinrich Schuetz was both a survivor and a relic of his own past glory. The 63-year-old devout Lutheran had survived the religious slaughter of the Thirty Years War, which had killed more than half of the musicians of his German world. Surely the most influential composer of German history, he had also outlasted his own impact on the next generation of German composers, patrons, and audiences, who unjustly regarded his music as outdated. Who knows how he felt about his growing isolation, but it's interesting that he chose to compose one of his grandest and greatest accomplishments - the Geistliche Chormusik 1648, op. 11 - in the antiquated contrapuntal style of Renaissance vocal polyphony, the prima prattica, rather than the operatic Italianate seconda prattica he himself had introduced to German music.

VA - Vivarte Collection, Vol. 2 (2016) (60 CD Box Set) FLAC
EAC Rip | FLAC (Image+.cue, log) | Covers included | 17 Gb
Genre: Classical, Baroque / Label: Sony Classical

The box contains a perfect overview of VIVARTE’s legendary catalogue of ancient music ranging from Vivaldi to Brahms. Most of the recordings received critical acclaim all over the world, many of them won prestigious awards and many are reference recordings.

Although most of Heinrich Schütz's surviving music is for the church, his first published work was this set of Italian madrigals–a remarkable collection of pieces that perfectly capture the style while continually throwing off sparks of originality. Dedicated to a patron back in Germany who funded his two-year study in Venice with the great master, Giovanni Gabrieli, these 19 madrigals are rich in imagery and occasionally make tantalizingly brief forays into harmonic territory reminiscent of Gesualdo.