Johann Hermann Schein: Ich Will Schweigen (2014)

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Johann Hermann Schein: Ich Will Schweigen (2014)

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When Johann Hermann Schein became Kantor at the church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig in 1616, he had, on the one hand, to satisfy the liturgical demands of his Lutheran parish and, on the other, compose music that was truly contemporary, sensible to the new style coming out of Italy. Schein exploited the new possibilities brought by the basso continuo, demonstrated his mastery of musical rhetoric and wrote extremely ambitious music of great expressive force. The instrumentation calls for instruments such as the cornet, trombone and dulcian, Schein drawing his musicians from the forces of the Stadtpfeiffer and Ratsmusiker, guilds of instrumentalists attached to the City of Leipzig since the 15th century. For this musical portrait of Schein, one of the greatest German composers of the 17th century and one of J. S. Bachs most talented predecessors, InAlto presents an itinerary to the sources of the German cantata and testimony to the extraordinary tradition of city musicians perpetuated over the centuries. In addition to Scheins music, this heritage is represented here by Johann Schelle, Gottfried Reiche and J. S. Bach.

Composer: Johann Hermann Schein, Johann Philipp Krieger, Heinrich Bach, Gottfried Reiche, …
Performer: Marc Meisel, Béatrice Mayo-Félip, Alice Foccroulle
Conductor: Lambert Colson
Orchestra/Ensemble: Ensemble Inalto

Reviews: Although billed as a recording of the music of Johann Hermann Schein, only half of the works here are actually by this German early baroque composer. The CD's subtitle, 'Johann Hermann Schein and the Leipzig Stadtpfeifer tradition', hints at a fascinating programme - or at least, it did to me - but sadly that promise is not fulfilled. About half of the fifteen pieces are for voices – and, in many cases, drastically re-scored to suit the combination of voices and instruments available, but with no indication to that effect in the booklet. A few of the works are for organ, and only a handful of the pieces are for 'Stadtpfeifer', i.e. city waits or wind band.

Instead, what we get is a rather disparate mixture of instrumental and vocal works, with no audible logic to the programme's selection or arrangement. Schein's title piece, the funeral lament 'Ich will schweigen', is quite good, but none of the pieces here are all that exciting or memorable; even the organ chorale 'In dich hab ich gehoffet, Herr' by Heinrich Scheidemann, one of my favourite baroque composers, is all too laid-back and understated here. Only Bach's closing organ piece, 'Fuga sopra Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt' BWV 705, really impresses, and even then it's been re-scored here for wind band, with their cornetti, sackbuts and dulcian admittedly sounding very fine.

The performances by three singers and the instruments of the early music ensemble InAlto, directed by cornetist Lambert Colson, are generally very good, and the sounds produced are pleasant enough throughout the programme. The fault lies in the choices made, in the misleading title and subtitle, and in the manner in which many of the works have been arranged. It's all the more disappointing since several fine German baroque composers are represented, including Schein himself, Scheidemann, Johann Schelle, Johann Krieger and JSB. But there are far better recordings available of all these composers. There's some able musicianship here - hence the slightly generous 3-star assessment - but, apart from that, I cannot discern any particular point to this recording.