TELEFUNKEN
1 LP - SAWT 9467-A - (p) 1965
1 CD - 2564-69612-8 - (c) 2008

LUKAS-PASSION | DIE SIEBEN WORTE





Heinrich SCHÜTZ (1585-1672) Die sieben Worte unsers lieben Erlösers und Seligmachers Jesu Christi, so er am Stamm des Heiligen Creutzes gesprochen, SWV 478
18' 08"

- Introitus: "Da Jesu an dem Kreuze stund" (Chorus) 2' 13"
A1

- Symphonia a 5
 		1' 32"
A2

- "Und es war um die dritte Stunde" (4 Evangelisten, Schächer, Jesus)
 		10' 48"
A3

- Symphonia a 5
 		1' 39"
A4

- Conclusio: "Wer Gottes Marter in Ehren hat" (Chorus) 1' 56"
A5

Historia des Leidens und Sterbens unsers Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi nach dem Evangelisten St. Lucam (Lukas-Passion), SWV 480
33' 26"

- Introitus: "Das Leiden unsers Herren Jesu Christi" (Chorus) 1' 15"
A6

- "Es war aber nahe das Fest der süßen Brot" (Evangelista, Jesus, die Jünger, Petrus)
 9' 27"
A7

- "Und er ging hinaus nach seiner Gewohnheit and den Ölberg" (Evangelista, Jesus) 1' 35"
B1

- "Da er aber noch redete" (Evangelista, Jesus, die Jünger)
 1' 59"
B2

- "Sie griffen ihn aber und führeten ihn" (Evangelista, Ancilla, Petrus, 1. u. 2. Knecht)
 1' 33"
B3

- "Die Männer aber, die da Jesum hielten" (Evangelista, die Juden, Hohenpriester und Schriftgelehrte, Jesus)
 2' 38"
B4

- "Und der ganze Haufe stund auf und führeten ihn für Pilatum" (Evangelista, Hohepriester und Schriftgelehrte, Pilatus, Jesus)
 2' 06"
B5

- "Da aber Pilatus Galiläam hörete" (Evangelista)
 1' 04"
B6

- "Pilatus aber rief die Hohenpriester und die Obristen" (Evangelista, Pilatus, die ganze Schar)
 2' 32"
B7

- "Und als sie ihn hinführeten" (Evangelista, Jesus, die Obersten, die Kriegsknechte, 1. u. 2. Schächer)
 5' 15"
B8

- "Und es war um die sechste Stunde" (Evangelista, Jesus, Hauptmann) 1' 16"
B9

- "Und alles Volk, das dabei war und zusahe" (Evangelista) 1' 29"
B10

- Beschluß: "Wer Gottes Marter in Ehren hat" (Chorus) 1' 37"
B11





 
Sieben Worte:
Max van Egmond, baritone (Jesus [Tenor II])
Irmgard Jacobeit, soprano (Evangelist [Sopran])
Bert van t'Hoff, tenor (Evangelist [Altus], Schächer zur Linken)
Peter Christoph Runge, baritone (Evangelist [Tenor I])
 Jacques Villisech, bass (Evangelist [Bass], Schächer zur Rechten)

MONTEVERDI-CHOR HAMBURG

LEONHARDT-CONSORT
- Marie Leonhardt & 1 other, Violine
- Dijke Koster, Violoncello (Giovanni Battista [II] Guadagnini, 1749)
- Veronika Hampe & 2 others, Viola da gamba
- Gustav Leonhardt, Orgel (Klaus Becker, Kupfermühle 1961)

Jürgen JÜRGENS, Gesamtleitung
 		Lukas-Passion:
Max van Egmond, baritone (Jesus)
Peter Christoph Runge, baritone (Evangelista)
Mitglieder des Monteverdi-Chores, Petrus, Pilatus, Ancilla, 1. und 2. Knecht, 1. und 2. Schächer, Hauptmann

MONTEVERDI-CHOR HAMBURG
(Die Jünger, hohepriester und Schriftgelehrte, die Juden, die ganze Schar, Chor)

Jürgen JÜRGENS, Gesamtleitung
 





Luogo e data di registrazione
Studio Teldec, Hamburg (Germany) - Novembre 1964

Registrazione: live / studio
studio

Producer
-

Prima Edizione LP
Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SAWT 9467-A | 1 LP - durata 52' 13" | (p) 1965 | ANA

Edizione CD
Warner Classics | LC 04281 | 2564-69612-8 | 1 CD - durata 52' 13" | (c) 2008 | ADD

Cover
"The Crucifixion", after a painting by Paolo Veronese.

Note
-












Heinrich Schütz’s Passion Oratorio “The Seven Words of our Dear Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ, as he spoke on the stem of the Holy Cross, quite freely set by Master Heinrich Schütz, Conductor to the Elector of Saxony“ has come down to us only in an undated set of handwritten choral parts of that time. Schütz presumably wrote the work in 1645, towards the end of the Thirty Years War, and at the time when his Court Chapel was at its lowest state of decline. As a motto, he prefaced it with a verse of a hymn intended to relate the Act of Salvation directly to the believing listener, and that was not without a sombre topicality at the end of the great war:
“If you live for the world, then you are dead
And afflict Christ with pain,
But if you die in his red wounds,
Then He lives in your heart.“
The text of the work, summarized from the four gospels into the “sacred“ number of the seven dying words, already had a venerable tradition that had assumed artistic shape in the mediaeval hymns “Patris sampienta“ and “Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund“ (When Jesus was on the Cross). Schütz followed this tradition by using the first and last verses of the hymn ,,Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund“ (without its melody) together with an instrumental “Symphonia“ following the first verse and repeated before the last, as a framework for the Seven Words proper, these of course strictly following the biblical text. The ’Introitus’ and ’Conclusio’ (the two hymn verses), are two five-part motet movements of almost exactly equal length; the “Symphonia“ is likewise in motet character, although written as a compact, chordal, five-part instrumental. movement. The Seven Words display exactly the same distribution of voices, divided, however, between the “roles“ of the Passion story. The words of Jesus are sung by the second tenor, accompanied by two instrumental parts; the words of the thieves are sung by the alto and bass; the evangelist passages are sung alternately by the soprano, alto and first tenor soloists, or in motet style by a vocal quartet without the second tenor. Dramatic presentation of the action and deliberately unrealistic stylization in the narrative evangelist passages, in accordance with the tradition and the liturgical dignity of the subject, are thus perfectly balanced. The continuo, used throughout the work, is the technical devise used for holding all the various sections together to form an entity.
Just as in the case of this formal scheme, the work’s stylistic details clearly display efforts to combine musical and liturgical traditions of Passion composition with the modern formative elements of monody, and to mediate between solemn, ritual narration and dramatic depiction. Thus the writing in the hymn verses and the evangelist quartet passages is of a strict, restrained intensity that is never excessive and madrigalesque, being even more restrained than the writing in the “Sacred Choral Music“ composed around the same time. Again, the instrumental parts to the words of Jesus do not only serve to underline the spiritual core of the whole and (quite similarly to Bach's St. Matthew Passion) surround the Saviour with a “halo“, but also to bind the monodic power of expression of the vocal part into the fixed “turns of phrase“ and the strict rules of composition of a quasi-motet movement. The words of the thieves and the solo sections of the evangelist part are also clearly separated by such restrictions from the model of free Italian monody and even from the dramatic tone of the recitatives in the later “Christmas Story“. How magnificently and with what variety, but also with what dignity and solemn earnest the expression of this work develops, precisely under such strict limitations, the attentive listener will not fail to hear, quite independently of any historical and technical knowledge.
A similar liturgical austerity is displayed even more clearly in the three late Passions of the master, of which that based on St. Luke’s gospel is the only one not dated. It might already have been composed shortly after 1653, thus in the seventh decade of the composer’s life. All instruments - even the continuo - have been banned from this work in accordance with the venerable tradition of “quiet“ music in Holy Week. An outer framework is provided by two motet-like choruses - a “Title“ as an ‘Introitus‘ and again the last verse of “Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund“ as the conclusion. These two choruses recall the structure of the “Seven Words“, but they are not in five parts. as was customary at that time, but only in four, and are briefer and more restrained in expression than those of the other work. The action choruses of the Passion story, on the other hand, also in four parts, are of a magnificent forcefulness and dramatic quality in their expression, although within a restricted space and with the most modest means of composition. Finally the words of Christ, of the evangelist and of the other individual characters of the Passion story are heard in unaccompanied recitatives with no rhythmic values in their notation. These are based on the liturgical recitation tones of the gospel readings for Holy Week, but the schematic formulas of these are transformed by rearrangements of notes, little melismata and cadenzas into a musical “speech“ that is just as subtle as it is expressive. This recitative tone is quite unique (although it did not arise without historical models), and recurs in Schütz’s St. Matthew and St. John Passions; it reveals more than anything else how the composer developed the greatest wealth of expression from the severest limitation of his means. Stylization akin to liturgy and dramatic expressiveness, supreme spirituality and profoundest feeling come together in the Passions of Schütz to form a synthesis that could probable be achieved only by the greatest German composer. before Bach, and even by him only at the end of his life. In our recording the choral singing of the disciples (11 vocalists) the high-priests, scholars and chief-pontiffs is performed exclusively by male voices (including falsetto voices). The two accompanying choirs and the choirs of the Jews and the crowd are sung by both female and male vocalists of the Monteverdi Choir.