Magnificat - Schütz: Cantiones sacrae - The Times

...why not try Heinrich Schütz’s 1625 collection Cantiones sacrae? Here are 40 sacred motets sung by the six voices of Philip Cave’s Magnificat ensemble, accompanied at times by five quiet instrumentalists. With such forces, nothing detracts from Schütz’s varied interwoven lines, sometimes floating in melodic bliss, other times crunched into dangerous harmonies, always following the words with care. If the texts ascend into heaven, as at the start of the Lord’s Prayer, so does the pitch. This is music of intimate majesty, spiritual and human, splendidly performed.