ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE
Israelis Brünnlein 1623
Geistliche Madrigale zu 5 Stimmen und Generalbass
Dorothée Mields soprano
Barbora Kabatková mezzo-soprano
Robert Getchell alto
Tore Tom Denys tenor
Jimmy Holliday bass
Collegium Vocale Gent basso continuo
Philippe Herreweghe conductor
Like Samuel Scheidt and Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein was able to harness the emotional power of contemporary Italian music in his own compositions. As cantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and thus one of Bach’s illustrious predecessors, Schein combined the southern idioms with those of his own Lutheran world. His magnum opus Israelis Brünnlein, a collection of five-voice madrigals from 1623, is splendid evidence of his ability to effortlessly combine polyphonic style with baroque expressiveness, creating an ingenious wellspring of musical eloquence.