Lukaspassion & Die Sieben Worte : Complete recordings, Vol 6
A seventeenth century Passion “Radio Drama,” the sixth installment of the recording of Schütz’s complete works by the Dresdner Kammerchor and Hans-Christoph Rademann presents three powerful works for Passion. The St. Luke Passion SWV 480 unfolds a panorama inviting us to experience an intense, inward-looking pictorial reflection on Jesus’s Passion. The words of Luke the Evangelist are sung without accompaniment, the musical means skillfully reduced to a minimum. This narrative is interrupted by the choruses, creating dynamic emotional scenarios, clamoring, pleading, querying and raging: in this way, Schütz creates a form of Passion, a “radio drama” with a deeply movingintensification of events. The well-known “Sieben Worte Jesu am Kreuz” [The Seven Last Words of Jesus on the Cross] SWV 478 is the first contribution of the viola da gamba player Hille Perl and her ensemble "The Sirius Viols" to the complete Schütz recording. The sophisticated structure of the work, the intense sensuality of the individual sections and the beauty of the musical message make the “Seven Last Words” a masterpiece. The third work on this CD, “Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott” [Have Mercy on me, O Lord God] SWV 447 for solo soprano accompanied by a consort of viols a composition for the Good Friday service represents a charming and appropriate complement to the “Seven Last Words”.