Schütz: The Christmas Story; Gabrieli: Christmas Motets

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Schütz's Christmas Story is the proto-Christmas-Oratorio, firmly establishing conventions (tenor-narrator singing freely composed recitative; chorus members taking the parts of characters and crowds) that lasted through Bach's time and beyond. But there's more than just historical interest: the episodes for the Angel, shepherds, Three Kings, and other characters (each with its own characteristic instruments) are captivating. John Mark Ainsley is a solid but slightly thick-voiced Evangelist; Ruth Holton sounds convincingly boy-like as the Angel, yet her spectacular singing is anything but immature. The rest of the King's Consort is flat-out terrific. Speaking of terrific, their performance of four multiple-choir Christmas motets for varied combinations of soloists, brass, and strings is as exciting as any Gabrieli performance on disc. --Matthew Westphal

Amazon.com

Schütz's Christmas Story is the proto-Christmas-Oratorio, firmly establishing conventions (tenor-narrator singing freely composed recitative; chorus members taking the parts of characters and crowds) that lasted through Bach's time and beyond. But there's more than just historical interest: the episodes for the Angel, shepherds, Three Kings, and other characters (each with its own characteristic instruments) are captivating. John Mark Ainsley is a solid but slightly thick-voiced Evangelist; Ruth Holton sounds convincingly boy-like as the Angel, yet her spectacular singing is anything but immature. The rest of the King's Consort is flat-out terrific. Speaking of terrific, their performance of four multiple-choir Christmas motets for varied combinations of soloists, brass, and strings is as exciting as any Gabrieli performance on disc. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews:

a voice teacher and early music fan.......2006-11-28

In 1608, Schutz was given a grant to study with Gabrieli in Venice, from whom he received 3 years of rigorous training. This was an auspicious time musically to be there, for the musical developments in Venice were setting the trend for the whole of Europe. Thus Schutz was able to take in both the old and new styles; the old polychoral tradition exemplified in the massive motets of Gabrieli was being superceded by a new, more intimate concertato style which involved smaller ensembles of voices and instruments. At the same time, the rise of opera was seeing refinements and developments in the field of recitativo. Schutz took all these styles back to Germany eventually producing 500 compositions; the next decades proved him to be the greatest German composer of the 17th century.
The Court Diary descibes 'The Christmas Story' (1660) as "the birth of Christ in recitative syle".
The major narrative of the work is recited by the Evangelist (John Mark Ainsley-tenor) accompanied by a small organ and string bass. Schutz writes using a great deal of word painting, and the pacing of the story is carefully calculated; this is one of the finest examples of an Evangelist's narrative before Bach. The Preface to this composition (presumably written by Schutz) states it as being:"History of the Joyful and Merciful Birth of the Son of God and Mary, Jesus Christ, our only mediator, Redeemer and Saviour."The 3 main characterizations are :The angel (soprano-Ruth Holton)-the Evangelist (John Mark Ainsley-tenor) and Herod (Michael George-bass). There are 19 sections in all interspersed with small vocal and instrumental ensembles whose renditons are first-rate.
Four Motets by Gabrieli:
"Quem vidistis pastores" (O shepherds,whom do you see?) is one of his finest works. Scored in 16 parts for 2 choirs of instruments showing Gabrieli's fondness for low sounds,this work shows elements of the later chamber style as the 6 singers introduce themselves one by one. This small-scale texture continues until the full ensemble unites with awestruck majesty "O Magnum Mysterium".
"Audite Principes" (Listen, ye princes) is scored for 2 5- part choirs, one six-part choir and continuo and seems to be one great block of sound.
"O magnum mysterium" has a mood of subdued reverence, fitting for its subject matter.
"Salavator Noster" (Our Saviour) is a magnificent setting for three 5-part choirs and an independent continuo line. It has a wide variety of textures and moods; and it all ends in a blaze of sound.
Robert King has amassed an excellent group of talented singers and instrumentalists for this recording and has done a remarkable job of pulling this all together into one profoundly moving performance. Early music lovers should be delighted by this; I know I am!!!!!!

How about a little more sound here .......2004-12-01

I like the King's Consort and their recordings are such special, but why they wanted to record this as a live performance when they weren't even in front of an audience, I wish I knew. The sound quality on this performance is so low and the singers and musicians seem so far away from the microphones. I would pass on this one.

Probably not a bad choice, but there are better.......1999-04-01

Even though this recording got a very favorable review from Gramophone, I was somewhat disappointed by it. It almost seems like Gramophone plays favorites: it welcomed this recording despite its (gently acknowledged) flaws, while literally clobbering another recording of the Christmas Story (by Musicalische Compagney) for some of the same flaws. Well, I think Musicalische Compagney did a better job anyway. Plus, there are other more successful recordings of the Christmas Story than King's. See e.g. Oxford Camerata. Yet, I'm not implying that this version of the Christmas Story is poor. The reason I have a problem with it may have nothing to do with the singing as such, but rather with the acoustics. The sound seems to reverberate too much, preventing the lines from sounding crisp. In addition, as King explains in a sleeve note, a bizarre microphone arrangement was used that required singers to move around in order to achieve a "stereophonic" [sic] effect. To me, it only resulted in a disbalance, because some voices always sounded louder than others. It made it hard, at least for me, to collect the pieces into a complete picture. I am well familiar with this composition, so I was really disappointed when some of my favorite lines lost emphasis. Of course, if I heard this work for the first time on this disc, I may not have known that something was missing. Ainsley, however, is an excellent evangelist. So there certainly are things to be enjoyed about this recording. The Gabrieli pieces sounded better, although some of the same acoustical problems seemed to be present too. I'd say for a traditional rendition of the Christmas Story go for Parrott or Oxford Camerata. Or if you want an all-male, more medieval (and I'd say the most authentic) sounding version, then go for Musicalische Compagney.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

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