Schütz - the ‘Final Work’

The title of this CD states the programme: it contains Heinrich Schütz’s ‘Opus ultimum’ – his final work. Indeed, according to Peter Wollny in his notes to this recording, Schütz consciously wrote his setting of Psalm 119 as his last piece; the eleven motets for double choir and accompaniment that make up the Psalm (SWV 482-492) were planned as his musical legacy. In the last years of his life Schütz had also written settings of Psalm 100 (SWV 493) and the Magnificat, both in German (SWV 494) and for the same scoring. Wollny points out that Schütz’s contemporaries already knew the collection of these three pieces as the composer’s ‘Schwanengesang’ (Swansong). The term ‘Schwanengesang’ – derived from the Greek mythology, base on the idea that swans sing a last, beautiful song just before they die – is still used to denote an artist’s last…