Seeing a group called the
Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble on a disc devoted to sacred music by Johann Rosenmüller, a German composer of the middle-to-late 17th century, may not seem to promise much since groups specializing in the works of a single unknown composer may bring a musty, academic atmosphere. This one is the exception, however, with accurate, expressive instrumental work and a superb group of vocal soloists who capture the personal, intense quality of the music. The rediscovery of the 17th century German Baroque beyond Schütz and Buxtehude is yielding fresh treasures like this almost completely unknown composer, who chronologically fell right between those two greats. He was a German counterpart to Italians like Steffani and Carissimi, just as Schütz had adapted the discoveries of the early Italian Baroque to the German situation a generation or two earlier. As conductor
Arno Paduch points out in his own notes, the vocal pieces here (there is also a short three-movement instrumental sonata in the middle of the program) fall into two groups, one taking after the Italian oratorio with expressive, speech-like text setting punctuated by shorter, more rhythmically regular sections, and the other influenced by opera, with ornate aria-like tunes surrounded by instrumental ritornellos. But this doesn't tell the whole story. The most distinctive quality of these sacred concertos (the term "concerto" at this point simply meant the joining together of disparate musical forces) is a fervent, dramatic attitude that seems to point to the very inward cantatas Buxtehude wrote for private settings, and from there to Bach. Consider the unsettled harmonic atmosphere Rosenmüller gives to the opening textual material in Ach Herr, strafe mich nicht (track 2): "I am so weary with my groaning; I moisten my bed with tears all night long; I drench my couch with my tears." The soprano soloist (it's not clear from the tracklist whether it's
Irena Troupova or Dorothea Sprenger) gives this her all, using a sort of strangled tone at low volume but flawlessly executing the ornaments. The vocal soloists own their environment throughout, cutting through the spaces of the church ambience with delivery that is piercing rather than operatically loud. Several of these pieces are gripping; the music is nowhere less than attractive and the sound from the Christophorus label is a model for how to preserve clarity of textures in a large, empty space. A very nice find for any fan of Schütz or the early Baroque in general.