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Reviewer: James
A. Altena
Dorothee Mields is by now a much and justly lauded veteran of the early music scene; I have had the pleasure over the last couple of years of reviewing her in several releases in the Heinrich Schütz series on Carus. Here she sings six sacred arias, alternately interspersed with six brief instrumental movements, by three lesser-known composers of the middle and later German Baroque: Gregor Zuber (c. 1610–after 1673), Christian Flor (1626–1697), and Johann Theile (1646–1724). Of these three, Zuber is the most obscure. From 1633 to 1640 he played in the Gottorf court orchestra as a violinist, and then assumed a post as a civic musician in Lübeck, which he lost in 1669 due to leading an apparently irreligious and dissolute lifestyle; after rejection of his application for re-employment in 1673 he is lost to history. Flor made his career primarily as an organist in Lüneburg in far north-central Germany, where he successively assumed positions first at the Lambertikirche (1654), and then in addition to that as deputy organist (1668) and then chief organist (1676) at the city’s principal church, the Johanniskirche. He was succeeded there upon his death by Georg Böhm; his two younger sons assumed positions as organists at the Lambertikirche and the Michaeliskirche. Theile, the most famous of this trio, was a renowned contrapuntist and one of the last pupils of Schütz. He served successively in court positions in Gottorf (1673–75), Wolfenbüttel (1685–91), and Merseburg (1691–1694), and possibly after that in Berlin (in a publication dedicated to Prussian King Friedrich I, Theile stated, “I taught Your Majesty the oboe”), before returning to Naumburg to live with his son, where he died.
As one would expect, the style
of all this music reflects that of better-known contemporaries such as
Schütz, Schelle, Tunder, and Weckmann. The works are all well crafted, and
in Mields they find a sensitive interpreter of sterling quality. The
Hamburger Ratsmusik (comprised of viols, theorbo, cembalo, and chamber
organ) under Simone Eckert plays with suave, golden tones. CPO as always
provides excellent recorded sound and detailed booklet notes. This is a
recital disc that has brought me particular pleasure, and I expect to return
to it often; enthusiastically recommended. | ||||
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