Baroque singers present the music of Schuetz
Seventh heaven beckons for those dying to hear a live local performance of a major work by Heinrich Schuetz. Heinrich who, you ask? Briefly, Schuetz was born in 1585, exactly 100 years before J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel, and trained with Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice before becoming arguably the finest German composer of the 17th century Baroque period.
“He’s right at the top,” enthused Howard Dyck, who’ll lead the Nota Bene Baroque Singers & Players in Schuetz’s “Musikalische Exequien” (Musical Exequies or Musical Funeral Rites) on Saturday, March 24, at 8 p.m. at St. James Anglican, Dundas.
“Schuetz has this incredible affinity for the German language,” added Dyck, who led one of his former groups, the Kitchener-Waterloo based Grand Philharmonic Choir, in the “Musikalische Exequien” back around 2007. “Singing that stuff in German is so satisfying. It just kind of rolls off the tongue.”
Ironically, it seems that singing Schuetz’s stuff in the original tongue has been a prime factor in the dearth of local performances.
“It doesn’t work to sing this stuff in translation,” claimed Dyck. “And I think that’s one of the reasons it hasn’t caught on.”
Though Schuetz lived to 87, thus making him a veritable Methuselah in his day considering he survived epidemics and the Thirty Years’ War, Dyck doesn’t buy into the line that he was an austere, stiff, old fuddyduddy
composing scads of sacred songs.
“I don’t see him as an austere composer at all. Not at all,” asserted Dyck. “He’s a really redblooded guy. The lushness of the sound of these choral waves. There’s nothing austere about that music at all.”
The “Musikalische Exequien” was commissioned by a devout prince, Heinrich Posthumus of Reuss, for his funeral. The work is cast in three parts or movements. The first, “Concert in the form of a German funeral mass,” is based on Biblical verses and stanzas from hymns, the words of which were also engraved on the lid and sides of the prince’s coffin built while he was still alive. The second part, a motet based on Psalm 73:25-26, “Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe” (Lord, whom do I have but thee), was also the text for the funeral sermon. The final part, “Canticum B. Simeonis: Herr, nun laessest du deinen Diener in Frieden fahren” (Song of Simeon: Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace), was intended for the interment.
Of the 16-voice Nota Bene Baroque Singers, Dyck will have seven as soloists in the first part, a double choir each with eight for the second part, and for the third part, a main chorus of 10 plus a sextet, the latter singing from a distance. As for the accompaniment, Dyck has stripped it down to the bare essentials, a theorbo, a cello, and a positif organ. The result should be a 35-minute work of throbbing intensity.
But no matter how glowing the baroque pearls, 35 minutes does not a full concert make. So, Dyck, with Good Friday in view, has partnered the Schuetz with an iconic work, Mozart’s “Requiem,” accompanied by the 22piece NBB Players.
“I thought it would be an interesting contrast to do it (the Schuetz) with the Mozart because the Mozart is in so many ways a Baroque piece,” said Dyck. “Mozart took his cues from Bach and Handel to such a large extent in the ‘Requiem.’”
Dyck will be using Robert D. Levin’s 1991 completion rather than the 1792 Suessmayr.
“It’s always a kind of a seesaw,” admitted Dyck. “Sometimes I do the Suessmayr. Sometimes I do the Levin. I did the Canadian première of the Levin in 1994 with the Grand Philharmonic Choir. The obvious big surprise (in the Levin) is the Amen fugue at the end of the ‘Lacrimosa.’ The fugue is the most striking feature. There are all kinds of other things, these little things that the casual listener isn’t even going to notice.”
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Friday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m. in First Unitarian, 170 Dundurn St. S., flutist Sara Traficante’s and pianist Erika Reiman’s Wild Geese chamber ensemble perform their inaugural concert with mezzo Beste Kalendar in Ravel’s “Chansons madécasses.” The bill also includes works by Laitman, Tann and others. Tickets: $20, senior/arts worker $15, student $5, 12 and under free.
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Sunday, March 18, at 7 p.m. at Pioneer Memorial United, 1974 King St. E., Ron Beckett’s Arcady performs Handel’s “Messiah.” Tickets: $20. Call 905-545-9552.
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Wednesday, March 21, at 8 p.m. in the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, 440 Locust St., the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra with its new artistic director, Italian-born violinist Elisa Citterio, who previously played with the Orchestra del Teatro della Scala and a number of European period instrument ensembles, present an all-Vivaldi bill with concertos performed by Citterio, lutenist Lucas Harris, bassoonist Dominic Teresi, and others. Tickets: $59. Call 905-681-6000.