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Reviewer: J.F.
Weber
Abridger version:
These two great books of sacred music by Heinrich Schütz are a contrast in
styles. The Psalms of David was Schütz's demonstration of what he had
learned about polychoral style from Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice. The later
motets were a conscious throwback to unaccompanied motets in the older
style, unlike the sacred concertos with basso continuo that he published
around the same time in two books of Symphoniae Sacrae (1647, 1650). Yet the
performances in these two sets are more alike than we might expect, for both
ensembles use one voice to a part.
....
Junghänel eschews the normal order of the published book (Schneidt and
Bernius followed it) in favor of his own ordering. This presumably achieves
effects of balance and contrast in mood and scoring, although the notes are
silent about this. Junghänel's tempos are uniformly just a bit slower in
virtually every piece, but hardly enough to make a difference. The two most
recent sets of performances are more alike than different, for the choral
voices that Bernius uses influence the tonal weight of his performances less
than the solo voices and instruments, which are similar to Junghänel's
forces. Strange to say, one might choose one set over the other simply on
the basis of Bernius's numerical order versus Junghängel's own sequence of
pieces. I urge every committed Sagittarian to own one or the other.
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