SCHÜTZ 12 geistliche Gesänge • Hans-Christoph Rademann, cond; Dresden CCh • CARUS 83.239 (60:01 Text and Translation)

"The two latest issues in Hans-Christoph Rademann’s projected complete works of Heinrich Schütz offer some of the few pieces that have never been recorded (though not as many as claimed). The 12 spiritual songs were published as op. 13 in 1657, but like the Becker Psalms have escaped the complete-recording approach of the other published books (as noted in Fanfare 29:5). These are utilitarian pieces, which accounts for their neglect. The first six make up a Lutheran service, the next two a Vespers, then a litany, then three pieces for use at home, including a blessing before meals and a thanksgiving after the meal. These mealtime pieces are still sung at the Kreuzchor boarding school. This realizes the intention of Christoph Kittel, a choirmaster, who arranged for this collection to be published “for practical use in churches and schools.”

Six of these (including the first four and the two Vespers pieces) were recorded by Martin Zöbeley (30:4), some of them for the first time. Of the other two parts of the Lutheran service, Ich danke dem Herrn was recorded by Henri Ledroit and Danksagen wir alle Gott by Siegfried Köhler; oddly, these two had only once been recorded previously, and that was by Hugo Rüdel in Berlin in 1930. The remaining four pieces seem to be first recordings. These are modest and pleasant pieces unworthy of such neglect, and this recording moves us closer to a complete recording of Schütz’s works. Its purchase is mandatory for all true Sagittarians."

FANFARE: J. F. Weber