As a historical release, this recording, dating from 1975, is certainly valuable, tracing as it does a line of descent from Paul Steinitz’s pioneering performances of German baroque choral music, through Roger Norrington’s Heinrich Schutz Choir, to Derek McCulloch’s Collegium Sagittarii and John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir. It must be said, however, that heard without this context in mind, the disc, despite many individually memorable moments, is unsatisfactory as a whole. Steinitz’s performance of Die sieben Worte is very heavy-handed by modern standards: the choral sound has an old-fashioned, weighty quality about it which would not in itself matter were the pace of the work as a whole not so very leaden. The instrumental playing too often leaves much to be desired in this respect, but there are some real gems among the solo contributions, from David Thomas and Derek McCulloch in particular.
The four Dialogues fare rather better, with a great deal more technical polish and rather stronger musical direction. Especially memorable are the vigorous choral fusion in Es gingen zweene Menschen and the magical stillness of Weib, was weinest du? The choir’s vocal control in the latter is simply superb, and it is a magnificent work, shining and powerful even without its lost final chorus.
Something of a mixture, then, and one of less than 48 minutes’ duration, though I’d almost be persuaded to buy the disc just for the glorious five-and-a-half minutes of Weib, was weinest du?.'