Capella de la Torre and Bavarian Radio Choir

Release May 31, 2024

CD Edition.

New recording by the award-winning ensemble Capella de la Torre and the BR Choir of one of Heinrich Schütz's most moving works, as well as Baroque pieces by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Johann Schelle who inspired Schütz or were inspired by his musical output.

ABOUT THE RECORDING

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) was an exceptional artist in a turbulent era when music was reinventing itself and Europe was ravaged by war. His poignant three-part work Musikalische Exequien can be understood as one of his most important works and was written in less than two months upon the death of his employer Heinrich Posthumus Reuß in Gera in 1635. The album also features composers who inspired Schütz or were inspired by him. Included are works by Schütz's masters such as Giovanni Gabrieli (1554/1557 - 1612) and Moritz Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel (1572 - 1632), who composed the "Pavane de la tromba hollandica," a lively dance whose name comes from the Italian word "peacock." On his travels to Italy, Schütz met Claudio Monteverdi (1567 -1643), whose virtuosic "Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti," with its contrast of joyful spring nature and sorrow of love, even inspired him for his sacred concerto "Es steh Gott auf," and his student Johann Schelle (1648-1701). Johann Schelle (1648-1701), first a choirboy in the Dresden court chapel and later at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, wrote his motet "Komm, Jesu komm," in a style similar to Schütz's Geistliche Chormusik. A grand celebration of early Baroque!