Northern Light. Echoes from 17th-century Scandinavia
Lucile Richardot (mezzo-soprano)
Caroline Weynants (soprano), Caroline Bardot (soprano), Antonin Rondepierre (tenor), Sebastian Myrus (bass)
Ensemble Correspondances/Sébastien Daucé
rec. 2022, Ferme de Villefavard en Limousin, Villefavard, France
Lyrics and translations included
Reviewed as a download
Harmonia Mundi HMM905368 [82]
Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758) is called ‘the father of Swedish music’ and was the first Swedish-born composer of any stature. Before him, the music scene was a true melting pot of German, Italian and French influences. This disc here light on the former two, and especially German music; however, there are also Swedish elements, not in the music but in the texts, as the track-list shows.
A large part of the programme consists of pieces taken from the so-called Düben Collection. Gustav Düben (c1628-1690) was a member of a musical family. His father, Andreas, was born in Leipzig, studied with Sweelinck in Amsterdam and entered the service of the Swedish court in 1620. In 1640, he was appointed conductor of the court orchestra. Gustav received his first musical education from his father, and then studied in Germany for some years. After his return to Stockholm he became a member of the court orchestra in 1648. In 1663 he inherited his father’s positions as conductor and as organist of the German church. Although he has composed some music, he has become best-known for his collection of music. He had a special liking for the music of Buxtehude, and was in personal touch with him. No less than 105 compositions by the Lübeck organist are in the collection, some of which are not known from any other source.
The collection is huge: it contains about 2,500 handwritten works and more than 120 printed pieces. Both vocal and instrumental music is represented. Although there are some secular works, the largest part of the vocal music is religious. The collection reflects the needs of the royal court, but there are also some compositions which seem to be more suitable for the liturgical practice in the German church in Stockholm. Apparently it was Düben himself who was the rightful owner of this large corpus of music. After his death his son Gustav succeeded him but in 1698 he was again succeeded by his younger brother Anders. When he resigned from all his musical duties in 1726 he donated the whole collection to Uppsala University.
The programme is a mixture of rather well-known pieced and items that are seldom performed or recorded or may appear even for the first time on disc (which is not indicated in the booklet). Almost certainly new to the catalogue are the ‘Swedish pieces’. None of them has been written by the composer on a Swedish text. They are specimens of a wide-spread practice of replacing the lyrics of a piece by a different text (such a piece is known as contrafactum).
An example is the sacred concerto that opens the programme. Ack Herre, låt dina helga änglar is the Swedish text of one of Franz Tunder’s best-known works: Ach Herr, lass deine lieben Engelein. It is a setting of the third stanza of the hymn Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr; Bach used it at the end of his St John Passion. In the Düben Collection a separate part has been added with a Swedish text. The same is the case with I frid vill jag nu fara by Johann Krieger, who was from Nuremberg and the younger brother of Johann Philipp Krieger. The liner-notes don’t mention the original title. However, the translation indicates that it was a funeral work; the two stanzas open and close with the phrase “Now let me go in peace”.
A contrafactum of a different kind is Tunder’s Jubilate et exultate, vivat rex Carolus. The original text was Hoslanna dem Sohne David, a piece for Advent. It was replaced by a text at the occasion of the crowning of Charles VI as King of Sweden in 1675. The new text includes the line “Vivat Rex Carolus!”. He was called “Sun of the North”, a clear reference to the Sun King Louis XIV of France. He “was even hailed as the sol inocciduus: the sun that never sets (like the summer sun in northern Scandinavia)” (booklet). However, this sun did set: in 1697 he died, and his death was commemorated with a set of four poems, for which Johann Fischer, born in Augsburg, but working in Riga (then part of the Swedish kingdom) since 1690, wrote the music. As his settings are lost, for this recording the first poem has been fitted to the music of a funeral song by Fischer from 1680.
There was a close interaction between performers and composers across Europe. They travelled a lot, and therefore it does not surprise to see Germans being active in Copenhagen or Stockholm. Christian Geist is one of them: he worked as a singer in Copenhagen in 1569 and then, from 1670 to 1679, at the Swedish court. Es war aber an der Stätte is written for Passiontide and tells about the burial of Jesus. This piece begins with words from the gospel, and these are followed by a setting of the chorale O Traurigkeit! O Herzeleid!, containing chromatic descending figures. I don’t know whether Geist has set all eight stanzas; here only four of them are sung. The piece is set for alto solo with three viole da gamba and basso continuo, which was a usual scoring for a lamento like this.
Another singer who worked at the Swedish court for some time is Christian Ritter, who had been active in Halle as organist and singer, and entered the chapel in Stockholm in 1681; he later became vice-Kapellmeister and succeeded Düben as leader of the court chapel after the latter’s death in 1690. Salve, mi puerule is a piece for Christmas.
Three composers were in one way or another connected to the court in Dresden. One of them was David Pohle, who was a pupil of the Hofkapellmeister Heinrich Schütz, and later worked at several courts, such as Halle, Merseburg and Zeitz. Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe is another work with two violin parts and three parts for viole da gamba.
The two Italian composers also worked in Dresden. Vincenzo Albrici entered the service of Queen Christina of Sweden in 1652. When she converted to Catholicism, abdicated the throne and moved to Rome in 1654, he went to Germany, where he worked at several places, but mostly in Dresden, taking over some of the duties of the ageing Heinrich Schütz. From 1676 to 1680 he occupied the post of Kapellmeister there. Cogita, o homo is another example of a piece that was adapted by Düben – not the text, but the music. He added two string parts to the original scoring for two violins, bassoon and basso continuo.
Marco Gioseppe Peranda was born around 1625 in Rome or Macerata, and may have been a pupil of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome. So was Christoph Bernhard, one of Schütz’s favourite pupils, who took Peranda with him when he returned to Dresden between 1651 and 1656. Here Peranda entered the service of Johann Georg II, the heir of the electorate, as an alto singer. In 1656 his chapel and the court chapel were joined. By 1661 Peranda was appointed vice-Kapellmeister and in 1663 he succeeded Vincenzo Albrici as Kapellmeister. In 1672 Schütz died, and Peranda was appointed Hofkapellmeister. Peranda was a Catholic, which caused some unease; he never converted to the Lutheran faith of the court. O Jesu mi dulcissime is not fundamentally different from pieces about the Virgin Mary. However, mysticism was also a part of the Lutheran faith, as Buxtehude’s cycle Membra Jesu nostri – also part of the Düben collection – proves.
The most famous piece on the programme is Ach, daß ich Wasser’s g’nug hätte by Johann Christoph Bach. It is a lamento, a much loved genre in German sacred music of the 17th century, which had its roots in Italian opera. As so many pieces, it is about sin: “Oh! had I but water enough in my head, and if my eyes were only wells for my tears, that I might weep day and night for my sins!” It is in binary form; after the second section, the first is repeated.
This piece brings me to a consideration about the nature of German sacred music of the 17th century, especially what was written and performed in the Lutheran part of Germany. One of its features is the strong expressive depth. I see two reasons. The first is the focus on the text. In Martin Luther’s theology, the Word of God took central place; everything circled around it. In music, this resulted in compositions in which the text was treated with great precision in order to communicate its meaning. A good example is the piece by Christian Geist. In his setting of the chorale he adds notes to the end of each line in order to create a descending chromatic figure, in accordance with the text and the general content of the piece.
The second reason is the instrumental scoring. Whereas in sacred concertos by Italian composers voices are mostly accompanied by two violins and basso continuo, German composers preferred a stronger instrumental support, in which lower instruments played a major role. Pieces for two violins and two – or even three or four – violas or viole da gamba were no exception. Such scorings also reflect the German tradition of counterpoint, the importance of which was emphasized by Schütz, for instance in the preface to his Geistliche Chor-Music of 1648.
This recording is another impressive testimony to the profound expression of German Lutheran sacred music. Equally impressive is the way it is performed here. Lucile Richardot takes central stage; she has a unique voice, unlike any other. She has been involved in many recordings, and I have never heard anything that is not at least good. Here she is very good; this is one of the best recordings of German sacred music I have heard in recent years. She has a wide tessitura; she is announced as a mezzo-soprano, but she has also a strong low register, almost tenorial. It helps to give maximum weight to each part of a text. Add to these qualities a wide palette of colours. She is not a German speaker, but her pronunciation is excellent and fully idiomatic; I have not heard an error in this department. (Obviously, I can’t judge her Swedish.) She has a thorough understanding of the texts and their meaning, which she also shows in her addition of ornamentation. She adds it where it is possible or needed, and omits it when the text requires a straight performance. In several pieces she is joined by other singers, who act at the same wavelength. The ensemble is immaculate.
Then we have the instrumental ensemble. Its role is essential, as I have indicated. The playing is brilliant and profound, and entirely based on the content of each piece. This is expressive playing of the highest order, and exactly what this repertoire needs.
As one may understand, this disc is an essential addition to the discography of German sacred music of the 17th century. It is a disc to which one may return time and again, because of the quality of the music and the way it is performed. It deserves a special recommendation and goes straight to my list of recordings of the year.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
https://bsky.app/profile/musicadeidonum.bsky.social
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Contents
Franz Tunder (1614-1667)
[Ack Herre, låt dina helga änglar]
David Pohle (1625-1695)
Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe
Christian Geist (c1650-1711)
Es war aber an der Stätte, da er gekreuziget ward
Marco Giuseppe Peranda (1625-1675)
O Jesu mi dulcissime
Vincenzo Albrici (1631-1696)
Cogita, o homo
Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)
Ach, daß ich Wasser’s g’nug hätte (Lamento)
Christian Ritter (c1645/50-1717/25)
Salve, mi puerule
Sebastian Knüpfer (1633-1676)
Suite of dances
Johann Krieger (1651-1735)
[I frid vill jag nu fara]
Franz Tunder
[Jubilate et exultate, vivat rex Carolus]
Johann Fischer (1646-1616/17)
[Das klagende Schweden-Reich]
