Sacred Music by Johann Schelle

Editorial Reviews
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Robert King and The King's Consort have clocked up some important historical and composer-based series for the Hyperion catalogue, but none more rewarding than 'Bach's Contemporaries'. Technically, this has so far only covered Bach's three immediate predecessors at Leipzig: Knüpfer (1633-76 – reviewed on page 91 of the June 2000 issue), Kuhnau (1660-1722), and now the middle one of the group, Johann Schelle (1648-1701). It all goes to show how the Leipzig Thomaskantorate regularly attracted the finest composers of each generation and demonstrates to us just how much Bach actually learned from them. Bach got to hear Schelle's music just in time: the library inventory from Bach's first year at Leipzig reports that 'Schelle's Musical Things … have been damaged by their use and have become nearly unusable'. Robert King has chosen a wide range of works on which to judge Schelle's art, from the simplicity of the funeral motet Komm, Jesu, komm (1684), to his most ambitious work, Lobe den Herrn for two choirs, soloists, strings, cornettos, sackbuts, four trumpets and timpani. Robin Blaze makes a strong case for the early Wohl dem, a psalm setting for one voice and five-part instrumental ensemble which belongs to a tradition established by Schelle's teacher, Heinrich Schütz. There is some startling word-painting, but it was a technique Schelle soon grew out of as he became more interested in the potential of the chorale. In Herr, lehre uns bedenken the instruments offer a running commentary in the form of apposite hymn quotations between verses. Christus, der ist mein Leben is more atmospheric: four violins and four violas surround the sung chorale refrain with a shimmering halo of sound. The melting duetting of Carolyn Sampson and Rebecca Outram is one of the highlights of the disc. Not much Schelle has been recorded before (he is unrepresented in the current catalogue) and this new issue offers plenty of unknown repertory and a much broader reading of the wonderful Vom Himmel than Musica Fiata managed in their pioneering recording from 1994. I feel unusually evangelical about this new disc. Its riches are thrillingly overt: the music radiates a glowingly optimistic sense of spirituality comparable with the most outgoing of Bach's later cantatas.Simon Heighes

Sacred Music by Johann Schelle, Music, Robin Blaze, Peter Harvey, Johann Schelle, Robert King, King's Consort, Carolyn Sampson, Rebecca Outram, James Gilchrist, Chamber Music & Recitals, Choral, Choral Music, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music

Average customer rating:

Rich sounds and glorious music

For now, a very worthy effort

Another good Bach predecessor

Sacred Music by Johann Schelle

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
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Knupfer: Sacred Music /King's Consort * King

Kuhnau: Sacred Music

ASIN: B00005COXO
Release Date: 2001-06-12

Customer Reviews:

Rich sounds and glorious music.......2003-08-03

I would like to second the comments made by Mr. Michael Holmes. This is a very worthy recording of some fabulous music. Undoubtedly this music would benefit from the use of Chor-ton (Kornett-ton) i.e. a' = 466 Hz, but this doesn't bother me in this case and the use of modern concert pitch a' = 440 Hz seems to be a good compromise to me.
I the combination of Baroque violins (with their sharp, incisive timbre), cornetti (with their characteristic silvery transparent sound) and the edgy sound of natural trumpets - all playing together in the same range - is a sound that is very beguiling.

Roland Wilson's Musica Fiata Köln recorded some of these works for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi around thirteen years ago and if Mr. Robert King's disc has fired your interest in Johann Schelle's music then Wilson's earlier recording is well worth having, too!

Listen to the King's Consort recording of the large scaled cantata 'Lobe dem Herrn' (track 1) - this is a fine example of Schelle's power as a composer.

For now, a very worthy effort.......2003-06-22

While one of the other reviewers has brought up some valid criticisms, I'd like to point out that these are minor issues that in my opinion warrant a higher-than-four-star rating. From a historical point of view, one could even claim that King's decision to record the works of Johann Schelle at A=440 pitch instead of the more appropriate A=466 is cause for a reduction in its validity. However, I shall take a view from a period performer's perspective. The choice to perform or record at A=466 is a very [costly] one. For example, some of the wind players would need to buy entirely new instruments, because the pitch adjustment of transposing up a half tone is far too awkward and unnatural for the lower-pitched instruments. Also, making copies of old instruments at A=440 is really a modern compormise. Roland Wilson's ensemble "Musica Fiata" from Köln, Germany actually required their sackbut (trombone) players to transpose the music up one half-tone in their recent Schelle recording. This transposition makes the fundamental pitch of the trombone A instead of B-flat. However, their cornetto players performed on instruments actually made for high pitch.

Perhaps the King's Consort is not yet ready for a change to high pitch. I am certain that they have seriously considered this as well as the considerable timbral differences that this makes. For the Brits, this is a practical compromise, and I'm sure that very soon, the late seventeenth-century repertoire will soon be played in the UK at the right pitch.

All things considered, I'm basing my five-star rating mainly on the performance and the general production. I know the Hyperion label very well, and I admire the great things they are doing for music listeners of refined tastes. King meets the incredible challenge of this rare music with great flair. When compared to the "Musica Fiata" recording of Schelle's cantatas and sacred concertos on the CPO label, I would probably rate MF a bit higher. However, if one is interested in exploring the unique wealth of Schelle's sound world, one should probably own both of these CD's, which offer mostly different works. In common with both recordings is the concerto "Lobe dem Herrn, meine Seele."

The execution of the sophisticated and highly difficult trumpet parts on Wilson's recording is by far superior to King's result. However, this doesn't mean that King's recoding is negative.

Of special note in the present recording is the ravishingly beautiful (in a Lutheran pietist sense) performance of the concerto "Christus, der ist mein Leben" which is scored for four separate violins, four gambas, soloists, choir and continuo. Also, the cantata "Von Himmel kam der Engel Schar" is likely to surprise anyone who is skeptical about late seventeenth-century German church music as being "inferior" to "J.S. Bach the pinnacle of the baroque age." Just by listening to the opening of this cantata, one can hear very clearly that Bach developed from a steadily evolving cultural tradition and that he did not emerge suddenly from a vacuum.

One wonderful instrument that was curiously falling out of use in Bach's day was the cornetto, a highly agile chromatic instrument with a history of its own, separate from the trumpet. In Schelle, we can hear the mixture of trumpets, cornettos and trombones. This creates a splendid texture, which in many ways allows the music even more fluidness and expressivity that much eighteenth-century music lacks.

I salute Robert King for helping to finally uncover the still under-recorded (and under-published) riches from the era between Schütz and J.S. Bach. Recommended are the other two Hyperion CDs in this series: church concertos and cantatas by Knüpfer and Kuhnau, two masters in the long line of great cantors of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

Another good Bach predecessor.......2001-10-17

It's been enjoyable to follow the revelation by the King's Consort of just how good Bach's predecessors were (and how good the Consort, too). Schelle was the last but one kantor before the accession of J. S. Bach at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig. Bach is known to have borrowed text and melodies from Schelle, and here you can hear why. Schelle is a very good composer once famed for "divine simplicity and sweetness," according to the disc notes. The grand opening and closing pieces are festive in their pomp and verve, featuring magnificently played high cornetts and trumpets. The two funeral motets of mourning are still quietly effective. In the cantata, "Lord, teach us to remember," Schelle cleverly includes four other chorale tunes as if in fact to test the congregation's memory for them! The final Christmas cantata ends with a surprising but ineffable fade out into eternity that is not an engineering trick. The pieces well express the moods of the varied texts, and occasionally exhibit acutely expresssed word painting. They do not have as strong a musical contour as the most memorable of J.S. Bach's works. Rather than intricate counterpoint Schelle usually employs an alternation of lighter solo voices and small choral tutti, often in parallel motion with simple sweet harmony from strings and continuo.

These pieces do not sound like exotic antique music but are solidly within the Protestant choral tradition and worth reviving today. Unlike the preceding Knüpfer disc in this series from the King's Consort, each of the 5-11 minute pieces is assigned only one track number (and when did you last see an index number for access to subsections?). That won't help learning them. Twice I thought I heard voice entries clipped short by the engineers. Note that the order of the commentary in the text differs from the order of the music on the disc. Although Schelle's music was preserved haphazardly on musty paper, we can be glad. One wonders, what are the chances another 300 years from now for today's music on acidic paper, magnetic tape, or plastic CD?

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

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