United Kingdom Various – The Christmas Story: Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen (artistic director). Wigmore Hall, London, 15.12.2024. (AK)
In spite of some eight decades of listening to music, I came to all the music in Arcangelo’s The Christmas Story with utmost ignorance. Until this concert, I have not heard any of the pieces on the programme.
Due to the caring and skilful performances and the compositions on offer, unblemished beauty filled the Wigmore Hall throughout the whole concert.
In addition, the evening was primarily about the music, not about the performers. How often does one come across such selfless presentation?
Instrumentalists and their artistic director Jonathan Cohen (directing from the harpsichord) came on stage together. There was no special entrance either for the conductor (Cohen) or for the leader of the small orchestra. The second entrance was reserved for the ensemble of singers.
The programme featured Heinrich Schütz (1585 – 1672) alongside his contemporaries, all of whom were at some stage Schütz’s students, or colleagues, or friends. The repertoire highlighted the influence of the Italian Renaissance on German composers, largely brought about by Schütz. In his youth he studied with the Italian composer Gabrieli in Venice where the polyphony heard in St Mark’s Basilica made a deep impression. Schutz passed on what he learnt in Venice to his German contemporaries.
The first half of the concert consisted of several compositions (and parts of compositions) of different lengths and genre. Motets and instrumental pieces alternated, thus giving a good overview of Schütz’s musical landscape. I enjoyed every moment and every note but despite Arcangelo’s assumed intention to present a unified entity (of Italian Renaissance in Germany), the first half of the concert was somewhat bitty.
As often with Renaissance music from any land, some of the pieces on the programme are very much in the hands of editors and performers. Embellishments that is vocal and instrumental improvisations were often taken for granted at the time but were not specified by composers. Arcangelo’s musicians provided such additions with consummate care, ensuring organic entity for the whole.
For Schütz’s vocal works Arcangelo used the Carus Verlag edition but I was unable to find it in London libraries. However, comparison with other editions shows interesting differences between editors and performers.
In Hodie Christus, the IMSLP’s score (Spitta, Breitkopf, 1893) does not show any instrumental repeat of vocal sections, as lovingly performed by Arcangelo.
I have no score on hand for Heute ist Christus der Herr geboren but Arcangelo gave us a jubilant cornet contribution as well as instrumental sections, none of which appear in the recording by Concerto Vocale.
For Auf dem Gebirge, Arcangelo’s programme notes describe two alto solo singers but at the concert these parts were taken buy two gentleman one of whom might have been the only male alto listed. Schütz indeed suggested two alto solo singers and five unspecified instruments (two in alto clefs, three in bass clefs): Arcangelo gave us beautiful accompaniment by wind and string instrument (while Fretwork recorded the work with two countertenor soloists accompanied by five viols).
Schütz’s Die Weihnachtshistorie (The Christmas Story), taking up the second half of this concert, is a pre-cursor to Bach’s retelling the story about a hundred years later. As with Bach, the Evangelist (tenor) tells the story, vocal solos/ensembles strengthen the narrative.
Composed c.1660, Schütz declined publication of the whole: he allowed only the recitatives which were duly published in 1664 (Dresden, Alexander Hering) by which time Schütz was 79 years of age. Several publications (of the recitatives) followed but the eight vocal and instrumental movements (called here as Intermedium) were rediscovered in manuscript form as late as in 1908.
According to Philip Legge (IMSLP), Schütz specially asks for recorders, cornets (or clarini) and violettas (alto violins of the gamba family). Arcangelo duly included these instruments.
Before the interval, the first Schütz contemporary was Johann Vierdanck (c.1605 – 1646). His Sonata 28 (from Capricci, Canzoni und Sonaten, 1641) was performed with cornet solo (presumably by Arcangelo’s first cornet player Doron Shervin), accompanied by wind and continuo but without including any strings. A video recording by Alice Culin Ellison presents the same work for solo violin accompanied by wind and continuo. Looks like cornet and violin might have been interchangeable at the time.
Michael Praetorius (born Michael Schultze, c.1571 – 1621) seemed to have intended his Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern for five voices (two sopranos, two tenors, one bass) with instrumental accompaniment. This is what Eulenburg’s mini score (Redlich, 1948) specifies and this is what we had at the concert. Interestingly, the Gabrieli Consort and Players use nine voices.
For Terpsichore (1612), a set of instrumental dances, Pretorius does not seem to indicate any particular instrumental media (Fidula Verlag, Weber, 1962). In Arcangelo’s spirited presentation strings and wind alternated.
Johann Hermann Schein (1586 – 1630) was represented by a four-part Intrada as well as Suite No.10 from his Banchetto musicale (1617) but not all four movements of the suite were performed and the remaining three movements were not performed together. Galliarda and Allemanda followed Praetorius’s Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern while the Padouana followed attacca Schütz’s Auf dem Gebirge. This was confusing, I thought Padouana was still a part of the previous piece.
Schein did not specify his instrumentation, Arcangelo gave us recorders, cornet, strings.
The performances throughout the evening were of top quality, with faultless early music performing style and unquestionable dedication to music. There was also skilful management of practicalities: nine singers, fourteen instrumentalists plus the artistic director with his harpsichord needed special skills to fit onto Wigmore’s stage.
Arcangelo lists the names of the performers but does not push forward their artists. Unlike with most programme notes elsewhere, here the sung texts took up space instead of artist biographies. It was not easy to figure out who sang or played any part, and I did not. However, I must single out tenor Nicholas Mulroy who was part of the nine singers but was also the Evangelist in The Christmas Story. His soft-grained – or toned down? – voice was very well suited to the part, and he narrated the story as if he was telling it rather than singing it. He interpreted every word with great sensitivity and applied nuanced dynamics throughout.
Artistic director Jonathan Cohen has my vote for the early music director of the year.
At last but not least, the encore concluding the concert was of indescribable beauty and simplicity. The old German Christmas carol Es ist ein Ros in Praetorius’s harmonisation – with added instrumental verses – took my breath away.
The performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Thursday 19th December and you can listen to it until 14th January on BBC Sounds.
Agnes Kory
Programme as performed:
Schütz – Hodie Christus natus est, SWV456
Vierdanck – Sonata No.28
Praetorius – Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern
Schein – Banchetto musicale – Intrada a4
Schein – Suite No.10 in D minor from Banchetto musicale: Gagliarda & Allemanda
Schütz – Heute ist Christus der Herr geboren, SWV439
Praetorius – Terpsichore – Ballet TMA 268 & La Bourée TMA 32
Schütz – Auf dem Gebirge, SWV396
Schein – Suite No.10 in D minor from Banchetto musicale – Padouana
Schütz – Siehe, es erschien der Engel des Herren, SWV403
Schütz – Die Weihnachtshistorie (The Christmas Story), SWV435