NEWS

Capella de la Torre / Chorwerk Ruhr / Florian Helgath - Bodenschätze. Motets from the Florilegium Portense

 With this album, Florian Helgath has been nominated for the Opus Klassik 2022 in the category choral work recordings.

Linking the vocal music of what is probably the most important German composer of the early baroque period, Heinrich Schütz, with the vocal music of Nikolaus Brass, who was born in Lindau in 1949, goes back to the music theater project “Earth Diver” at the Ruhrtriennale 2016, which featured "God and we". Brass composed his "Choral Scenes for a Music Theater" entitled "Voices I" and "Voices II" for this purpose. Brass' vocal music met that of Heinrich Schütz but also electronic-noisy music (soundscapes) and spoken texts. Film sequences also visually complemented the events. This album "reduces" the situation to the "pure" sound encounter: Heinrich Schütz - Nikolaus Brass.

Release date: 3 June 2022

The second recording by Florian Helgath with the Zürcher Sing-Akademie will be released for Claves Records in October 2022. The album features works by Brahms/Kinzler, Winkelman, Huber, Flury and Schürch.

With Chorwerk Ruhr and Capella de la Torre, Florian Helgath's new recording focuses on motets from the late 16th century. The collection of the early Baroque master Erhard Bodenschatz, published for the first time in 1603, illustrates the then new typesetting technique of the Baroque in a clearly understandable way in chants mostly by German or Italian masters. The young J.S. Bach heard and studied these works, which were around 100 years old.

“[…] The album »Bodenschatze«, sung by the excellent Chorwerk Ruhr conducted by Florian Helgath, embarks on unheard-of discoveries from this collection in the truest sense of the word. What reverberates here is representative, sacred music of the finest [...] The subtle instrumental accompaniment on historical instruments by the wind ensemble »Capella de la Torre« also enriches the album and underlines the solemnity of the music. Sometimes the instruments are coupled with the appropriate voices, sometimes smaller preludes and interludes are switched on. And so this wonderful album, performed at the highest level, proves to be a treasure trove of vocal music treasures from around 1600.”

Chorzeit, Arne Sonntag, January 2022