Search - Schutz, Wilson, Musica Fiata Koln :: Symphoniae Sacrae 2 / Vater Abraham

Schütz's sacred vocal works resemble concertos with singers in the way solo and grouped voices are orchestrated within a malleable yet variegated instrumental framework. Not much of the music's fervency, passion, and harmonic piquancy, however, come across here. Granted, florid passages present no problems for the assured, seven- member La Capella Ducale, and the members' superb diction renders the composer's masterful word setting with the utmost of clarity. The main problem is with the instrumentalists. Conductor Roland Wilson elicits stylish, note-perfect execution, phoned in with detached fluency that relegates Schütz's intense expression to the level of pleasant background music. Everyone pulls together, though, for the moving, quasi-cantata Vater Abraham, worth the price of these two discs. --Jed Distler