Listening Log: Heinrich Shutz

German composer Schutz, 17th century master of church music, died 13 years before Bach was born, and his Christmas oratorio,HISTORIA DER GEBURT JESU CHRISTI, has a sweet melodiousness, a simple nobility, that reaches straight through the intervening centuries to our hearts. Vivarte Sony Classical recording SK 45943, featuring the Baroque Orchestra of Stuttgart, the Kammerchor of Stuttgart, and the Musica Fiata of Koln, issued in 1990, also contains Schutz’s Easter oratorio.