Featured Album October 2024: David de Winter & The Brook Street Band "Schütz: A German in Venice"
In our early music world, we love seeing artists collaborate and come together to bring their projects to life. An idea from celebrated tenor David de Winter to explore the Venetian sensibilities of the music of German composer Heinrich Schütz led to an approach to The Brook Street Band, and a new collaboration was born. The resulting album, released earlier this year on First Hand Records, is a delightful exploration of the music of Schütz and his contemporaries, and a deserved Featured Album for this month...
Schütz: A German in Venice
David de Winter & The Brook Street Band
OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR OCTOBER 2024
Click here to order now!
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From the artists' press release:
One of the key German composers before Bach with more than 500 surviving individual pieces, Heinrich Schütz wrote mainly church music, and is credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque. Although he lived most of his long life in Germany, in his twenties Schütz made two visits to Venice. The first was between 1609 and 1613 when he was taught by Giovanni Gabrieli; and the second in the late 1620s to meet and possibly study under Monteverdi. The two trips greatly influenced Schütz’s music as he absorbed and began to combine the ornate and theatrical Venetian style with the more understated Lutheran tradition in which he grew up.
This album explores his solo cantatas alongside examples of the brilliant and virtuosic Venetian style instrumental music.
David de Winter and The Brook Street Band wish to acknowledge the generous support of the Continuo Foundation and many individual donors, without whom the creation of this album would not have been possible.
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Why The Early Music Shop loves "Schütz: A German in Venice":
What is immediately striking about A German in Venice, the new album by David de Winter and The Brook Street Band, is the closeness of the ensemble; the shared energy they create shines through in the music within. Produced by acclaimed composer and conductor Ben Parry, this recording, released by First Hand Records in April 2024, is warm, clear and intimate.
The programme's premise is an interesting one. While Heinrich Schütz may not celebrate the same fame as some of his German Baroque successors, this project places his, largely sacred, vocal works in the spotlight along with carefully-chosen works by contemporaries including Monteverdi and Cavalli. Focussing on the inspirations Schütz drew from his visits to Venice, including time under the tutorage of Gabrieli, the similarities in composition between the German student and his Italian peers are remarkable. The end result is an album with a real cohesion and a sense of deep respect and personal interest in the music delivered.
Besides the repertoire choices, David de Winter's tenor voice is the glue that binds the album together. Always expressive and well-controlled, de Winter carries the solo lines with charm and confidence, yet never loses sight of the overall sense of ensemble. The album opener, Lobet den Herrn, (SWV 350 – from Schūtz's Symphoniae sacrae II) is energetic, with characterful weaving around the higher recorders in some intricate polyphonic lines. By contrast, the stillness and beautiful shaping of Cavalli's O quam suavis est offers one of the stand-out vocal performances on the album.
The Brook Street Band, here augmented with recorders and theorbo courtesy of Emily Bannister, Lisete da Silva Bull and Lynda Sayce, contributes a highly listenable accompaniment to this music. While the lower recorders are sometimes outshone by the violins in terms of dynamic and projection (as, arguably, they would be in a live setting), the overall ensemble is well-balanced and, most importantly, offers a real unity in phrasing and direction. Two instrumental sonatas by Salamone Rossi allow the strings to take the full spotlight, with dynamic interplay between Rachel Harris and Kathryn Parry on violins. They are supported by Tatty Theo's cello and harpsichord by Carolyn Gibley, a partnership which offers a strong closeness throughout.
For early Baroque chamber music with Italian sensibilities, look no further: this recording is delivered with character, expertise and a passion for the subject which is evident throughout its 80-minute runtime. Classy stuff.
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Schütz: A German in Venice is available now from The Early Music Shop online or in our Snape Maltings showroom.
Click here to order now!
Click below to find out more with a behind-the-scenes look into the project and its creation:
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In Conversation: 'A German in Venice'
As part of their featured album month, we spoke to tenor David de Winter and cellist Tatty Theo, director of The Brook Street Band, who both shared some brilliant insight into the creation of their album 'A German in Venice'.
The Early Music Shop: This album is largely built around the music of Heinrich Schütz, along with music from some of his Venetian contemporaries. What particularly appealed about his compositions when dreaming up this project?
David de Winter: I first came across Schütz via his choral repertoire through pieces like Hodie Christus Natus Est and Wie lieblich sing deine Wohnungen and his music always fascinated me due to the collision of musical backgrounds. It's neither renaissance nor baroque but is a beautiful hybrid of both, combining more ancient modal harmony with the new instrumental ritornello style of the seconda prattica. Additionally, Schütz mixes aspects of both German and Venetian styles, with moments of florid theatricality and ornamentation together with more restful and simple passages. All these things make for really cool music - there's always something unexpected either rhythmically, harmonically or melodically, and that appeals to me.
Tatty Theo: I have to admit, my knowledge of Schütz’s music was largely from a while back, during undergrad music studies and in the early days of my professional life, before Handel completely took over! I knew it was incredible music, but I’d forgotten quite how brilliant and funky it is, and this project proved a fabulous chance to expIore this earlier repertoire. I don’t think I’d previously quite appreciated just how rich and varied it is, straddling musical eras, different countries and influences. Schütz’s music is anything but conventional, even within the established harmonic and melodic frameworks of the time, and that very much appealed to me.
EMS: How did the process of curating and rehearsing this programme take place? Was it a collaborative effort, or did someone take a lead role in directing the ensemble?
DdW: It was very much a collaborative effort. I came up with the initial idea for Schütz and Venetian repertoire and approached Tatty during the Covid lockdown with this mad proposal. To my delight, she was really keen to get involved and the project sort of developed from there. Between us we managed to get some concerts in 2022, commemorating the 350th anniversary of Schütz's death and realised that we had a put a pretty special programme together, so made plans to do a recording in early 2023.
The rehearsal process was very much a voyage of discovery. Far from telling The Brook Street Band how to play, they did their thing and I did mine, and the whole thing sort of came together organically. I tended to lead most of the pieces but one of the most pleasing aspects of our collaboration was that every musician had input into the process which really created a sense of ownership of the project.
TT: The initial idea was very much David’s, and as normal life was suspended during lockdown I had the time and headspace to give it serious thought and see what a great collaboration it could be. We’d recently worked with David on a concert project and really enjoyed the energy and fresh perspective our working together brought out, so it seemed a natural extension to this, to develop the Schütz project. Brook Street rehearses in a pretty relaxed manner; we prefer to play rather than write things in, and just see how the music evolves as we get to understand it. Initial rehearsals were led by David as he was more familiar with the music, but it wasn’t long before everyone chimed in with ideas, crazy violin ornamentation … and requests for light. There are huge amounts of notes on the page, and one of our first performances was in almost total darkness.
EMS: The recording has a lovely warm sound which captures the energy of a live recording. What are your favourite memories of the recording process?
DdW: The incorporation of theorbo and recorders to the texture for the recording sessions really added an extra dimension of colour to the sound. We were very fortunate to be in the beautiful surroundings of Oxnead Hall together with the recording team which was truly special occasion and it allowed ourselves to immerse ourselves in the music. Favourite memories - probably the snack table, which was crammed full of every possible confectionary, biscuit, crisp and cake you could possibly imagine. A hungry musician is never a good musician...
TT: Oxnead Hall is a wonderful setting, and so comfortable in terms of light, warmth and space. We could set up however it suited us and basically make ourselves supremely comfortable, and I think this sense of ease comes across on the recording. We recorded mostly in long takes, complete performances of each piece, and whilst we knew we were recording, this injected a freshness and exploratory feel to each take, which was liberating. In BSB trademark style, you never quite knew what was coming next, David and the treble instruments constantly one-upping each other with wonderful ornamentation. There was one passage of ornamentation at the end of Cantabo domino in vita mea, as the tempo and metre ramp up, where the violins basically fizz up the fingerboard (to heaven) alongside David’s heavenly Allelujas. I never tired of that bit, marvelling at the word painting possible even on just a single (albeit important) word.
I loved hearing the different colours and sounds we achieved with our varied palate of recorders and plucked bass instruments to add to our core instruments of strings and keyboards. That was really exciting, seeing if our orchestration plans worked, as of course, much of this music just specifies 2 treble lines and 1 bass line (in addition to the voice part), so we could have a lot of fun, pairing treble instruments together, working in unison or antiphonally, using multitude of varied sounds and instruments on the bass line to bring it all together.
It was beautifully sunny too, with the Hall situated in amazing grounds. I still cherish a photo of the frosty, icy lake as the sun came up, only to learn later that morning that David had fitted in his morning run around it as a warm-up to the day’s musical gymnastics. I think he had energy to burn, which brings me on to the subject of food. Eating definitely counts as part of the recording process, as performing makes for hungry work; our snack table was truly a thing of beauty, as were our evening meals together, where we all took turns cooking.
Oxnead Hall in Norfolk, where the album was recorded (Photo: oxneadhall.co.uk)
EMS: The programme flows very effortlessly and the similarities between the featured composers’ styles are hugely interesting to hear. Are there any works on the album which – from a performer’s perspective – are particularly rewarding to play or sing?
DdW: The Stabat Mater by Giovanni Sances is an incredible piece, full of emotion and heartbreak, especially given that the majority of the piece is made up of a 4-note descending scale. The way Sances' melody reflects the pain of the text is sumptuous and obviously his flagrant false relations are a particular highlight. Schütz's Herr unser Herrscher is extremely fun to perform as it lists various animals, beasts, fish and birds with the composer reflecting that in a very demonstrative style. But my particular favourite is the quiet intimacy of Cavalli's O quam suavis. Simple but also totally gorgeous.
TT: I think it really depends on your mood at any given time, as they’re all amazing. There were one or two that were less of a hit with all of us, but they didn’t end up being on the CD anyway, as we were limited to only 84 mins of music. If I’m after a quick burst of poptastic happiness, the Monteverdi usually ticks that box. O Quam Suavis is definitely one to take you to another world, as is the Sances Stabat Mater, which is totally trance-inducing, both to play and listen to. I love the Rossi trio sonatas too, and when performing the whole programme they provide a really nice contrast and change of texture. You can’t beat a ground bass, so the Ruggiero bass line never fails to put a smile on my face. Basically, they all have different aspects to them, all rewarding, there’s something to suit every mood you find yourself in.
EMS: Do you have other composers in mind to explore in future projects (whether they are with each other or with other collaborators)?
DdW: We're definitely going to collaborate together in the future. The Brook Street Band and I have a really good synergy which is important for any musical partnership. We've had tentative and informal talks about possibly doing a Handel disc in the future, so watch this space! I'm also currently obsessed with the songs of Guillaume de Machaut. I'd love to record them with instruments in the future.
TT: Watch this space, as I’m sure it won’t be long before we announce a Handel chamber music programme for BSB and David. We’ve been playing with various ideas, and the next stage is fundraising and programming concerts. That’s always a big spreadsheet moment, seeing as none of us live in the same city, so there’s always a fair bit of travel. BSB is also planning two recordings for 2025, both of which I’ll keep close to my chest for now. One is 18th century music by a contemporary of Handel’s, just as quirky and wonderful, but a well-kept secret. The other recording will take you into a completely different timeframe and world… the modern day!
You can hear “Heinrich Schütz – a German in Venice”, with a performance at Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BA on Tuesday 26 November, 5.45pm. Admission is free!
Find out more about the concert by clicking here.
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Schütz: A German in Venice is available now from The Early Music Shop online or in our Snape Maltings showroom.