Heinrich Schütz composed his Die Auferstehung unsres Herren Jesu Christi in the early 1620s. It takes the form of a compact oratorio following the events of the Christmas story according to the gospel narratives, and is scored for organ, violone, chitarrone, mixed viols, brass, mixed choir, and a solo tenor who sings the part of the Evangelist, as in Bach’s choral works. This recording, under the direction of Roger Norrington, should serve you well if you just want to get to know the piece without lightening your purse too much in the process. Taped 30 years ago, it’s acceptable despite a rather boomy acoustic. The tenor Peter Pears isn’t always comfortable nor especially reliable in his Evangelist role, though Norrington’s Schütz choir sings with precise diction, clean ensemble (mostly!) and intonation, plus a certain determined rigor that’s got less to do with the music and more to do with the conductor’s eccentricities!
Much of the time, Norrington sets impossibly fast speeds, and it’s to their credit that his singers manage as well as they do to stay with him. The “primitive” sounds of the London Cornetts and Sackbuts add a certain gloomy mystery and occasional grandeur to the proceedings, but it’s a shame that the excellent continuo group isn’t more forwardly placed in the sound field. This is a reasonable account, and it merited some credit in its day as a ground-breaking musical exhumation. Scholarship has moved on apace since 1970, though, and if you’re seriously interested in this quirky Yuletide epic, you’d do better to spend a little more and get René Jacobs’ authoritative Harmonia Mundi version. The performance is more disciplined, better sung and played, and more naturally recorded, and the booklet notes (Eloquence provides none) are admirable.
