Composer: Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Purcell Quartet, Michael Chance, Emma Kirkby, Charles Daniels, Peter Harvey, William Hunt, Jane Rogers, Rachel Byrt, Reiko Ichise, Clare Salaman
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN0723
Release: 2005
Size: 1.39 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Das neugebor’ne Kindelein, BuxWV13
02. Quemadmodum desiderat cervus, BuxWV92
Nichts soll uns scheiden von der Liebe Gottes, BuxWV77
03. Nichts soll und scheiden von der Liebe Gottes
04. Wie sollte wohl heissen das zeitliche Leiden
05. Auch ist kein erschaffnes Vermogen zu nennen
06. Denn Gott hat die Liebe so hoch ja getrieben
Dixit Dominus Domino meo, BuxWV17
07. Sonata
08. Dixit Dominus Domino meo
09. Juravit Dominus
10. Dominus a dextris tuis confregit in die irae suae reges
11. …conquassabit capita in terra multorum
12. Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto
An filius no est Dei, BuxWV 6
13. Sonata
14. An filius non est Dei
15. Quin immo Jesus est meus
16. Tu nectar es verissimum
17. Longe sapor dulcissime
18. Amen
Lobe den Herren, meine Seele, BuxWV 71
19. [Sonata]
20. Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele
21. Der dir alle deine Sunde vergibet
22. Der deinen Mut frohlich macht
23. Alleluia
24. Jesu, komm, mein Trost und Lachen, BuxWV58
Herr, nun läßt du deinen Diener, BuxWV37
25. Sinfonia
26. Herr, nun lasst du deinen Diener im Friede fahren
27. …denn meine Augen haben deinen Heiland gesehen
28. …ein Licht zu releuchten die Heiden
29. Jesu dulcis memoria, BuxWV 57
Dietrich Buxtehude is a composer whose reputation is on the rise as performers look beyond the organ works that Bach took a 300-mile stroll to hear, and find a wealth of other riches. This disc, the second of a pair issued by its performers covering the similar repertory, focuses on a group of highly accomplished religious pieces for one or more voices and instruments, without chorus. Unlike Bach during most of his career, Buxtehude was an organist first and foremost; another Lübeck composer took care of the weekly vocal music for church. Though they are presented as a unitary set by the packaging and liner notes, the works on this album are of two sharply different types. Some are for small groups of voices, plus a small string group and continuo. It’s easy to imagine these being sung on a Sunday in the living room of a well-established Lübeck merchant family; they have an intimate devotional quality that is familiar to us from Bach’s music but that comes through especially nicely in this comparatively unusual setting. Other cantatas are for a solo voice, and these were not sung in anyone’s home; they are fiery works for trained singers that Buxtehude must have had at his disposal. Some of the music is in German, the rest in Latin, and Buxtehude seems to have partially inspired Bach’s ability to wring dramatic impact out of the sonic characteristics of a single German word. Try singing “nichts” repeatedly and rapidly as the performers here must do; they pull it off perfectly.
Four top English soloists — soprano Emma Kirkby, countertenor Michael Chance, tenor Charles Daniels, and bass Peter Harvey — plus the Purcell Quartet handle these varied chores well in general. Those who want to hear Kirkby pushed to her limits can do so in the “Gloria Patri” movement of the cantata Dixit Dominus Domino meo, BuxWV 17, and the other soloists except for Harvey also get their athletic moments. Chance plays a bit loose with the pitch but is highly expressive. In the vocal-ensemble cantatas this English group does especially well in structures that point back to the middle seventeenth century — ground basses, little strophic movements. Their precise style feels a little restrained in the moments where Buxtehude is closest to Bach, but some listeners may like it that way. In any event, this is an above-average exposition of some unfamiliar and quite important music.