Praetorius - Mass for Christmas Morning

Michael Praetorius (Composer), Samuel Scheidt (Composer), Johann Hermann Schein (Composer), Paul McCreesh (Conductor), Gabrieli Consort (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Gabrieli Consort
• Conductor: Paul McCreesh
• Composer: Michael Praetorius, Samuel Scheidt, Johann Hermann Schein
• Audio CD (October 11, 1994)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Archiv
• ASIN: B0000057EH
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,420 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #42 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Featured Performers, A-Z > M to P

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, Excellent, November 13, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Praetorius - Mass for Christmas Morning (Audio CD)

If this is what music was like in the 1600's, we are all living in the wrong century! My eleven-year-old has started to hum tunes from this recording.

Paul McCreesh has reconstructed a Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning as it might have been celebrated around 1620 using music by Praetorius, Scheidt and Schein. Performed in Roskilde Cathedral, Denmark with soloists, choirs, original instruments and organ, the music ranges from the most delicate (single boy soprano) to all stops pulled out. I have never heard anything like it. The lyrics are all in German and Latin, but good translations are in the notes. The music is unique (though some of the hymns are still common in Churches today). Performance is tightly controlled, and flawless. Dynamics go all the way from ppp to FFF, sometimes quite suddenly.

Some of the hymns alternate German and Latin verses. Evidently this was common in northern Germany back then. The last hymn, In Dulci Jubilo, (Good Christian Men Rejoice) will blow your socks off, and perhaps blow out your windows if you don't watch the volume control. Those 17th century Lutherans were really joyous on Christmas morning.

This is my favorite recording.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusing!, February 7, 2004

By 

Manfred Mornhinweg (La Serena Chile) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Praetorius - Mass for Christmas Morning (Audio CD)

I wonder what kind of tool McCreesh used to conduct this performance? Was it a magic wand? No other of the 20+ CDs purchased lately has been able to produce such a riveting effect on me!

What McCreesh has done here is an imaginative reconstruction of a late Renaissance Mass, based mostly on collections by Praetorius (such as Polyhymnia caduceatrix et panegyrica, Musae Sioniae, Missodia Sionia, Urania, and the Puericinium), but also including some works of Samuel Scheidt, Johann Hermann Schein, and Lucas Osiander. And this compendium is performed with forces that combine the refined with the massive: The singers of the Gabrieli Consort include such "secret tip" names as Rodrigo del Pozo, while the choir forces range from a favoriti choir over a fine boychoir all the way to a massive choir built up by the already mentioned groups plus the congregational choir and several amateur choirs. All this is supported on period instruments, which include a chamber organ and the truly marvelous organ of Roskilde Cathedral, which is so authentic that it uses hand-blown bellows!

These ample forces are employed in a highly varied way. A solo treble (Anders Engberg-Pedersen) opens the performance with a faraway processional. Soon later, in the introit, the full choir sets the other end of the dynamics scale. In the gradual hymn each of its nine verses is performed with a different array: Baritone solo for the first, congregation and instruments with cathedral organ for the second, choirboys, strings and harpsichord for the third, and so on, until the last verse is performed with all hands, in twelve voices.

From the Puericinium, a collection of music for boy's voices, we get to hear the "Quem pastores laudavere", one of Praetorius' better known works, commonly referred to in Lutheran tradition as "the Quempas". Four trebles alternate with the full choir and ensemble in an enthusiastic rendering.

The magic keeps flowing for a full 79 minutes, until the apotheosic end, "In dulci jubilo", performed by five "choirs" which include everything from trebles to trumpets and drums.

This CD carries my highest level of recommendation, and is the newest addition to the "best of the best" list on my web site.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Performance, December 22, 2004

By 

D. A Wend (Arlington Heights, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Praetorius - Mass for Christmas Morning (Audio CD)

I bought this CD on the strength of the reviews posted at Amazon. I have several recordings of the Gabrieli Consort and Players but my choices have been exclusive to Venetian music. The music on this disc, the Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning, is equally inventive and interesting as Italian music of the same period. Certainly, Lutheran services were as musical as those of Venice. This is due to Michael Praetorius.

As the disc begins, the Introit (Puer natus in Bethlehem) is a stunning example of Praetroius' versatility. The piece is scored for vast forces that include soloists, a choir, a boys choir, organ sackbuts, strings, harpsichord, records, shawms, cornett and harp. For this disc, Paul McCreesh has reconstructed a mass that might have been heard on a Christmas morning in the 1620s. Along with music by Praetorius, there are hymns by Martin Luther and instrumental works by Samuel Scheidt and Johann Herman Schein. There is a variety of music from plainchant, organ preludes, hymns sung by choirs wrapped around the traditional layout of the mass: Introit, Kyrie, the Gloria. The instrumental music is beautifully performed and the venue of this recording, the Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark, is simply superb.

If you are familiar with the recordings of the Gabrieli Consort, this disc will be a welcome addition to your collection. For people new to this period of music, I recommend they first heard "A Venetian Coronation." This award winning disc will acquaint new listeners to the group with an appealing mass centered on the coronation of the Doge.