Joy and Gladness in Abundance

Three musicians from Hanover – one project: organist Ulfert Smidt, recorder player Elisabeth Schwanda, and soprano Ute Engelke explore the fascination of Advent and Christmas in an unusual, but all the more delightful musical setting on their CD ‘Joy and Gladness in Abundance’. They have arranged a number of works, mainly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for soprano, recorder, and organ, generating unheard-of, exceptionally stunning musical layers of nuance. The three musicians demonstrate all possible combinations of joint music-making full of inspiration and nuance, exemplifying in highly virtuosic and successful manner the essence of chamber music-making during Advent and Christmas: the expression of our joyful anticipation of redemption through the saviour’s coming into the world.

Elisabeth Schwanda
Ute Engelke
Ulfert Smidt

American Record Guide (9. November 2015, Peter Loewen)

“Beginning with Telemann’s ‘Lauter Wonne, Lauter Freude’ sets a jubilant tone for rest of the recording. The pastoral opening aria from Bach’s Christmas Cantata Süsser Trost, Mein Jesus Kömmt is very touching. Engelke maintains a pure tone, which allows ornaments and dynamic contrasts to stand out, all while Schwanda plays exciting divisions on the flute de voix rather than the transverse flute called for in Bach’s score. Their performance of Bach’s aria Schafe Können Sicher Weiden from Cantata 208 is likewise gentle and evocative. And the pastoral character persists through the Cantabile by Vivaldi, for solo recorder and continuo, and in Franck’s Pastoral for organ. The two bicinia Gelobet Seist du, Jesu Christ and Wie Schön Leuchtet Der Morgenstern are perfectly suited for Schwanda and Engelke’s ability to bring out the conversational nature of Praetorius’s counterpoint.”

Tibia (Februar 2016, Ulrich Scheinhammer-Schmid)

“Die Bearbeitungen für die drei Interpreten […] klingen ausgezeichnet – sie sollten vielen anderen Musikern Mut machen, mehrstimmige Sätze für eine derartige (oder eine ähnliche) Besetzung zu bearbeiten!”