Schütz: The Christmas Story & Other Works

Schütz was a 17th-century German composer of Lutheran church music, typically written with simple, unison textures to allow religious texts to take center stage. After studying in Venice with Gabrieli, and being influenced by Monteverdi’s operatic writing, however, he started adopting a more flamboyant, early Baroque Italian style. The main work here is Schütz’s Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi (The Christmas Story), conceived as part of the Christmas Day Vespers service—even if its style is often more operatic than liturgical, with its florid vocal lines and large choral and instrumental forces. Yale Schola Cantorum conducted by David Hill brings an expressive immediacy to this performance, painting pictures of angels, shepherds, and the Wise Men through finely-wrought recitative and richly-textured choruses. Serving as a preamble to the The Christmas Story are a handful of the composer’s Christmas motets. Der Engel sprach zu den Hirten (The Angel said to the shepherds) showcases Schütz’s mastery of complex counterpoint, while Das Wort ward Fleisch (The word was made flesh) brings the text to life with clever stylistic features, highlighting words such as “Herrlichkeit” (“Glory”) with scales rising upwards as if to the heavens.