Music / Der Schwanengesang, The Song Company. At St. Pauls Cathedral, Manuka, May 23. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

Roland Peelman returned to The Song Company for this presentation of Heinrich Schutz’s Der Schwanengesang.

This was written in 1671, a year before he died at age 87, so his musical world encompassed the end of the renaissance through the first half century of the baroque with the 30 Years War across the Germanies in the middle of it.

His last work, Der Schwanengesang, is a setting of Psalm 119 in German, as Schutz worked in the reformed German Church of Martin Luther. It is in 22 sections combined into 11 motets with an added three-line doxology at the end of each motet. A setting for Psalm 100 is added at the end.

The work is scored for eight voices in two SATB choirs who work alternately or together to create a wonderful stereo effect. The eight voices of The Song Company were joined by eight younger singers in the same two grouping who added their voices to the doxologies at the end of each motet, doubling each part. A couple of the Amens were quite magnificent.

There are effectively 23 separate pieces of music (plus the doxologies) in this work. All are similar in style, but all are different with combinations of voices shifting and changing, just washing over the listener.

The singing was note-perfect, as we have come to expect from The Song Company. There was an attention to detail in the dynamics, as one voice would soar above the others for a few words and then be reabsorbed into the harmonic whole. Underneath it all was a continuo organ, played by Nathan Cox, present but not overwhelming.

Out the front, Roland Peelman directed with animation and focus. His arms were constantly moving, almost physically drawing the music out from the singers.

This was a superbly satisfying performance of a grand piece of music, almost an hour and a half long. It is complex and fascinating work with more than a few moments of spine-tingling beauty as a chord just hung in the air or a voice floated above. From the looks on their faces, the singers felt it as well.