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Heinrich Schütz: Weihnachtshistorie (Christmas Story) Konstantinos Paliatsaras tenor , Evangelist Nadia Fiorou soprano , Angel Grigoris Pyrialakos bass , Herod Childrens Choir Thessaloniki Concerto …More
Heinrich Schütz: Weihnachtshistorie (Christmas Story)

Konstantinos Paliatsaras tenor , Evangelist
Nadia Fiorou soprano , Angel
Grigoris Pyrialakos bass , Herod
Childrens Choir Thessaloniki
Concerto ellenico
Kostis Papazoglou Conductor
Christoforos Tsitouridis sound
Daniel Getsi video conception
Concert Hall Megaron Moussikis Thessaloniki 22/12/2010
Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672) Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi

Instrumentation of the individual movements:
Exordium: ch sop alt ten bass bsn 2trb 2vn 2va vlne org
Recitatives (between each subsequent movement): ten bc
Intermedium 1: sop 2vdg bc
Intermedium 2: 2ch 2sop alt 2ten bass bsn 2vn 2va vlne org
Intermedium 3: ch 3alt 2fl bsn bc ; ch 2alt ten 2fl bsn bc (3rd alto may be sung by tenors)
Intermedium 4: ch 3ten bsn 2vl bc
Intermedium 5: ch 4bass 2trb bc
Intermedium 6: bass 2tpt bc (and we don't have a tag for cornettos, which are not cornets!)
Intermedium 7, 8: sop 2vdg bc
Beschluß: ch sop alt ten bass bsn 2trb 2vn 2va vlne org
Schütz specially asks for recorders (flutes), cornettos (or clarini, i.e. trumpets), violettas (alto violins of the gamba family), and if you didn’t happen to have those, then you’d make do with the more common violins and violas which are used in the opening and closing choruses. This gives rise to there apparently being several different versions, when it is simply the relative elaboration of the music depending on what obbligato instruments you have to hand. (Notes from Philip Legge)
Fresh from his studies in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz was named Kappelmeister to the Elector of Saxony in Dresden in 1617, the year in which the centennial of the Protestant Reformation was celebrated throughout Lutheran Germany. By the time he wrote the central work on our program published in 1664 as Historia, der freuden- und Gnadenreichen Geburth Gottes und Marien Sohnes Jesu Christi, Unsers Einigen Mitlers Erlösers und Seligmachers, commonly referred to asWeihnachtshistorie, orChristmas Story, Schütz was one of the few members of his generation surviving to remember those celebrations.
Saxony, along with the rest of northern Europe, was finally beginning to recover from the economic and social devastation of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). As always resources had been devoted to weapons instead of people and for many years during the war musicians in the court musical ensemble were paid only occasionally. In a letter written in 1651, Schütz described “the very great lamentation, distress, and wailing of the entire company of poor, deserted relatives of the singers and instrumentalists, who live in such misery that it would move even a stone in the earth to pity.”
The situation changed significantly in the 1650s, particularly with the ascent of Johann Georg II in 1656. While there was some concern among church authorities about his allegiance to the Lutheran confession, Johann Georg II was quite devoted to spiritual matters and to the support of the arts, and the new Elector lavished huge sums from the court treasury on an opulent musical ensemble. Some of the finest Italian singers were appointed and the instrumental ensemble was expanded to become one of the finest musical establishments in Europe.
It was with this magnificent ensemble in mind that Schütz composed his setting of the Christmas narrative, based on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The trend toward the dramatization of Vespers readings was already under way by the time Schütz wrote the Christmas Story, as for example in a similar work composed in the 1650s by his colleague Peranda, but Schütz was the first to use such a diverse orchestra to depict the characters in the story. The use of operatic recitative style for the Evangelist’s narrative was also innovative and reflected a theological trend toward the personalization of liturgy in an effort to communicate directly to the emotions of the congregation.
In developing a liturgy for the reformed church, Luther and his followers retained the Matins and Vespers services from the daily Divine Office of the pre-Reformation church, adapting their content to suit the new theology. The basic structure of Vespers remained in an abbreviated form, along with many of the Gregorian melodies and recitation formulæ, but the congregation was involved directly through the singing of chorales and the use of German along with Latin. The inclusion of chorales, the addition of a sermon, and the expansion of the lesson to include large sections of scripture recited in German served to shift the emphasis of the Vespers service away from prayer and meditation and toward the education and spiritual edification of the congregation.
Though Luther established a basic structure of worship, the details of liturgy and ritual were left largely to the discretion of local authority. Upon his ascension to the Electorate in 1656, Johann Georg II established a revised liturgy for the Dresden Court Chapel and this, together with diary entries from the court secretaries has provided considerable detail …
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