Buxtehude

Jacobs has found the means of marrying intense religious fervour with highly ”personalised” expression. (…) The instrumental ensemble provides a commentary of indescribable poetry. (…) The coupling is also exceptionally interesting, with the jubilation of Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn forming a superb contrast with the meditations of Membra Jesu nostri and offering an apotheosis in its concluding Alleluia.

This remarkable recording marks the first relationship on disc between an ensemble and the label Opus Arte, until now known for DVDs of live opera, ballet and theatre. Its new partnership with the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, one of Britain's oldest and finest choral institutions, begins with Buxtehude's sublimely tender 1680 meditation on the crucified Christ, Membra Jesu Nostri. In the future, we are promised works by the glorious John Sheppard, a 16th-centuryinformator choristarum at the college, and contemporary pieces from Matthew Martin, a former Magdalen scholar recently given a British Composer award.

Trio Sonnerie have chosen five of the 14 sonatas by Buxtehude from the 1690s to demonstrate their considerable fluency and rapport. These are witty and elegant works, finely crafted and requiring the skills of virtuoso players. Monica Huggett and Sarah Cunningham capture their essence with happily chosen and neatly articulated tempos—the vivace movements are effortlessly played—and beautifully transparent textures. Mitzi Meyerson provides a stylish and secure accompaniment, particularly in the G major Largo and the B flat major Vivace (which is, in fact, a chaconne).

This acclaimed recording series of the complete organ works of Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) offers a unique musical journey in the footsteps of the Danish-German Baroque master. Organist Bine Bryndorf explores Buxtehudes inventive stylus phantasticus through the beautiful sound of five historic organs around the Baltic area, beginning in the composers native town of Elsinore, and ending in Lübeck, where his successor Johann Sebastian Bach famously went to experience the art of the ageing organ legend.

Dieterich Buxtehude composed his Membra Jesu nostri in Lübeck in 1680, and the work, drenched in emotion in a most un-Bachian way, has become increasingly popular in the 21st century. The title might be translated "Limbs of Our Jesus," but actually the Latin texts, of considerable antiquity, describe seven wounds supposedly suffered by Jesus Christ on the cross, and the work thus falls into a group of works in which the number seven takes on mystical significance. Various interpretations have been offered, with the majority adopting the one-voice-per-part technique, sometimes in a severe way, sometimes carrying a feeling of intimate chamber reflection.

…Sopranos Emma Kirkby and Elin Manahan Thomas are excellent throughout…Harvey is a solid, dignified presence elsewhere as well, while tenor Charles Daniels and countertenor Michael Chance are at their eloquent best… Both The Purcell Quartet and Fretwork relish the variegated sonorities afforded by Buxtehude’s score, as well as the word painting, while blending with the voices to effect a homogenous yet multi-timbred sound of great beauty.

Dieterich Buxtehude is one of the key figures of the baroque period. Other musicians and composers like the young Johann Sebastian Bach came from all over Europe to listen to and to learn from him, since his virtuosi abilities on the organ and his knowledge of compositions were legendary. When he was quite old Buxtehude published two collections of instrumental chamber music. Apart from a few occasional works, these are the only examples of his art that were printed during his lifetime. Opus 1, containing seven sonatas for violin and viola da gamba with harpsichord continuo, is undated but probably appeared in 1694.

Buxtehude’s anthology and some of the most beautiful pages of North German repertory.