The result was a work that both looks back and introduces modern features. The retention of the Easter tone in the Dorian mode for the Evangelist’s narration, and the two-part polyphony employed for the other characters refer back to the earlier setting, as does the use of an ensemble of viols to accompany the Evangelist, while the introduction of continuo bass, and Schütz’s remarkable response to word setting place the work very much in its own time. The contrast between the modality of the Evangelist’s music, with its specific viol accompaniment, and the modern recitative and arioso continuo style of the characters in the drama represent one of the most striking aspects of the work. For me, it is one of the reasons for preferring this new version to the fine Sony Vivarte performance under Frieder Bernius, since Bernius obscures Schütz’s scheme by having his viols accompany some other sections in addition to the Evangelist’s music.

Manfred Cordes’s Weser-Renaissance has probably recorded more Schütz than anyone else (although not always with the same lineup of singers), and Cordes himself is probably the outstanding living master of the style. His performance of the Resurrection History is one of those rare occasions where one simply feels that everything is right. The continuous 40-odd minute work is paced with an unerring sense in which one event flows naturally and spontaneously into another, the whole linked by the wonderfully responsive and texturally aware Evangelist of tenor Hans-Jörg Mammel. His is a performance that—far from fearing comparison with Christoph Prégardien, his illustrious and excellent counterpart on the Bernius disc—excels in its avoidance of the odd rhetorical gesture that perhaps belongs more to the 18th than the 17th century. As is customary with historias, it is the Evangelist who carries the major responsibility, but no praise can be too high for the remaining seven singers, who either in trio (the three Marys) or duo (Christ is sung by two tenors, Mary Magdalene by two sopranos) produce top quality performances that equal or excel their rivals on the earlier recording. Among many outstanding moments, I’ll restrict myself to mention of the passage in which Mary Magdalene meets the risen Christ in the garden (surely one of the most touching scenes in the whole Bible?), the ineffable tenderness of the moment here rendered unforgettable by the sublime simplicity of both music and performance.

The performance of the Resurrection History is embedded within those of four Easter sacred concertos, of which the unpublished six-part Latin-texted Surrexit pastor bonus, which uses the metaphor of the good shepherd within an Easter context, is a fine and unusually opulently scored example of Schütz’s late style, the instrumentation calling for two violins, four viols, and continuo. Of special note is the 5vv dialogue Weib, was weinest du? that returns to the encounter between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, combining question and answer in a web of exquisite woven polyphony.

In a year when I seem to have reviewed so many outstanding releases, it is difficult to know whether room can be made for this wonderfully performed and engineered disc in the Want List. But even if it does not make it, there is no question that it qualifies as one of the outstanding discs of the year. As with Weser-Renaissance’s recording of Schein’s Israel’s Brünnlein, it has set a benchmark standard I do not expect to see challenged in the foreseeable future.

Brian Robins, FANFARE