Trio 258

For this recording of music by Buxtehude, Jonathan Cohen, founder of the ensemble Arcangelo, is joined by a distinguished trio, including two regulars on the Alpha label, Sophie Gent and Thomas Dunford, alongside the gambist Jonathan Manson. Although Dietrich Buxtehude is famous above all for his organ music and cantatas, and for the long journey the young Bach undertook to meet him, his chamber music is virtually unknown. In the mid-1690s, at the height of his fame, Buxtehude published two collections in rapid succession, each comprising seven sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and basso continuo. It is the works of the first collection (1694) – designated Opus 1 in the print – that Arcangelo has recorded here. These sonatas are characterised by pronounced experimental features in both the scoring and the handling of the instruments.

BUXTEHUDE Trio Sonatas op.1 is the debut album of Québécoise violinist Noémy Gagnon-Lafrenais, who joins forces with viola da gambist Margaret Little and keyboardist Christophe Gauthier to form Ensemble Spinoza and celebrate the seminal work of 17th-century composer Dietrich Buxtehude.

This Haitink/Beaux Arts/LPO Triple Concerto is superb and also unique in my experience. The acoustic captures the BA Trio so closely that one can hear their playing in minute detail. At the same time, the orchestral playing is equally detailed and attractively unbloated. The BA plays the concerto from a chamber music perspective more than a triple superstar perspective. Nothing drags and the bouyancy helps. Pressler and Greenhouse are especially eloquent. Both play with beautiful tone.