In Nativitate Domine: Festliche Weihnachtsmusik

Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden

  • AllMusic Rating
    8
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

In Nativitate Domine: Festliche Weihnachtsmusik Review

by James Manheim

This collection of Christmas music isn't very well identified on its cover, but it makes a fine choice for the holiday season or any other time. The program consists of music composed in German-speaking countries in the seventeenth century. Heinrich Schütz and Michael Praetorius are the best-known composers represented, but most of the music comes from the generations after them, from the middle and later parts of the century. It is, for the most part, thoroughly Italian in style, with the exception of the Lutheran chorales that weave their way through it. These semi-dramatic treatments of various aspects of the Christmas story are mostly for two sopranos, and they're an ideal match for the pair of Britain's Emma Kirkby and Sweden's Susanne Rydén. Kirkby is one of the veterans of the early music vocal scene, and it's not too much to say that she helped provide the world with an alternative model of soprano virtuosity. Her voice has lost none of its liveliness, but it has a thicker quality than before. It makes an intriguing contrast with Rydén's more silvery instrument. The music for the most part avoids the virtuoso quality of Monteverdi's high monodic style; it depends more on interpretation and consistency of tone, both areas in which these singers excel. The booklet notes by Bell'Arte Salzburg conductor Annegret Siedel effectively set out the expressive dimensions of this music; they are in German and English, but he texts of the music are in Latin and German only. Even those who don't speak the language will find a lot to enjoy here, however.

Track Listing

Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1
Sonata laetitiae for 2 violins & 3 violas, 4/11, A 471
Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 03:26 SpotifyAmazon
2
Ich verkündige euch grosse Freude, sacred concerto for 2 voices, 2 violins & continuo
Johann Vierdanck
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 05:26 SpotifyAmazon
3
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, chorale variation for voice, 2 violins, viola da gamba & continuo
Christian Geist
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 04:26 SpotifyAmazon
4
Uns ist ein Kind geboren, for 2 voices & continuo
Constantin Christian Dedekind
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 02:27 SpotifyAmazon
5
Willkommen Süsser Bräutigam, cantata for 2 voices, 2 violins & continuo
Vincent Lübeck
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 07:31 SpotifyAmazon
6
Magnificat anima mea Dominum, motet for voice & continuo (Sacra Partitura, 1651)
Phillip Friedrich Böddecker
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 05:19 SpotifyAmazon
7
Sonata tam Aris à 5, for 2 violins, 2 violas & continuo No. 6 in F major (Sonatae No. 6), C. 119
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 05:19 SpotifyAmazon
8
Gott sei Dank durch alle Welt, chorale for voice, 2 violins, 2 violas da gamba & continuo
Michael Altenburg
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 04:03 SpotifyAmazon
9
Venite ocius! Transeamus usque in Bethlehem, cantata for 2 voices, 2 violins, 2 violas da gamba, violone & continuo
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 10:10 SpotifyAmazon
10
Verbum caro factum est, for 2 sopranos & continuo, SWV 314 (Op. 9/9)
Heinrich Schütz
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 04:04 SpotifyAmazon
11
Alma Redemptoris Mater, antiphon for 2 voices, 2 violas da gamba & continuo
Benedikt Lechler
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 03:59 SpotifyAmazon
12
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How Brightly Shines the Morning Star) (from the Polyhymnia caduceatrix)
Michael Praetorius
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 01:11 SpotifyAmazon
13
Wie bin ich doch so herzlich froh, cantata for voice, 2 violins & continuo
Andreas Hammerschmidt
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 03:08 SpotifyAmazon
14
Gloria in excelsis Deo, for 2 voices, 2 violins, 2 violas da gamba & continuo
Johann Staden
Emma Kirkby / Susanne Ryden 02:48 SpotifyAmazon
blue highlight denotes track pick
In Nativitate Domine: Festliche Weihnachtsmusik

Emma Kirkby Discography Browser