Sch�tz: Mattha�s-Passion ? review

Ars Nova Copenhagen/Hillier
(Da Capo)

For a really sober, penitential Passion setting in the week before Easter, try this supremely ascetic setting by Bach's predecessor, Heinrich Sch�tz. Paul Hillier and his skilled Copenhagen ensemble have been working their way through Sch�tz's liturgical settings, but this is the biggest challenge, paradoxically because the music is extremely simple. So plain is the story-telling that the Evangelist (the excellent Julian Podger) sings his familiar narration, deftly inflected, unaccompanied throughout; the touches of expressiveness from the choral interjections are all the more powerful, and the theological understanding is profound. The closing choral plea of "Kyrie eleison" is the only text added to the Gospel, and deeply moving.

• Classical music

Nicholas Kenyon

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/17/schutz-matthaus-passion-kenyon-review

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