Appropriation and Resurrection

RENAISSANCE III | Carl Riedel's 1870 arrangements of the Schütz Passions, alongside works by Johannes Brahms and Arnold Mendelssohn

18:30 | Auf ein Wort... Prof. Dr. Walter Werbeck
pre-concert talk: "Resurrection and Appropriation"

In 1857, Carl Riedel sent Leipzig into raptures with a performance of Schütz's works. 350 singers, an orchestra of fifty, and the great Ortel organ made the Thomaskirche shake. His pasticcio "Die Historia des Leidens und Sterbens unseres Herrn Jesu Christi" drew on the three Passions of Heinrich Schütz and one by Marco Giuseppe Peranda, which in Riedel's day was still attributed to Schütz. As the early-music movement grew in stature, this kind of appropriation of old repertoire fell out of favour: too much contemporary taste was seen to obscure the historical heritage. Yet the rediscovery of early music would have been unthinkable without these first attempts, and without the collecting and editing zeal of the second half of the 19th century - driven by historicism - a number of manuscripts of music written before 1750 would have been lost forever.

The GewandhausChor sets Riedel's early testament to the Schütz renaissance alongside works by Johannes Brahms and Arnold Mendelssohn, composers who brought genuine curiosity to the "rediscovery" of early music.