The majority of Dutch Renaissance master Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck's output is vocal, but you wouldn't know that from the extent to which it is performed and recorded. This whole area of the repertoire remains practically unknown, rendered inchoate by the overwhelming precedence taken by his comparatively small body of keyboard music. Everything Sweelinck composed is available in modern editions, so there is no good reason that the vocal music remain uninvestigated, other than that it is little asked for. This is in itself a bit surprising, as his psalm settings were immensely popular in the Netherlands and were heard from Sweelinck's time into the nineteenth century.
In 1986, the Netherlands Chamber Choir decided to address this issue and recorded three volumes of Sweelinck's sacred vocal music, of which this NM Classics release is the first. On this volume, the Netherlands Chamber Choir is partnered with some very prestigious leaders and ensembles; Peter Philips is at the podium for the first five works, Ton Koopman for the next three with the remainder led by William Christie. The instrumentalists, likewise, are top drawer -- Hille Perl and Jaap ter Linden are heard under Koopman, and lutenist Stephen Stubbs attends to the small continuo that provides the accompaniment for William Christie, though admittedly in these recordings the continuo is not well heard. Sweelinck's psalm settings reflect the influence of the Italian madrigal on Dutch music in the sixteenth century; textures are largely homophonic, tempi are swift, and rhythmically the music is not as fluid as Lassus or Palestrina, but it makes frequent use of imitation, canonic devices, and sometimes achieves an awesome sense of transparency. That is part of the reason why Sweelinck's psalms are regarded among the pinnacles of renaissance choral literature; however, this may partly be the reason for their obscurity; they are most effective taken one or two at a time; listened to severally they tend to blend together as his approach is so homogeneous from one to the next.
These are very good recordings of significant Renaissance sacred music that deserves to be more widely performed and recorded. However, unless one is a listener very seasoned in this type of music, caution should be taken with NM Classics' Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Choral Works, Vol. 1, just as one would not load up on chocolate cake with walnuts, these rich creations should be enjoyed a piece or two at a time.
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