Buxtehude CD Reviews
01.12.11, MusicWeb International
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
An eye-opener for me...I found immense pleasure in this.
© MusicWeb International
01.05.11, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
The singing is glorious, as usual. Solo voices are lovely.
Peter Loewen
(To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.)
01.03.11, GRAMOPHONE
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
Less familiar fare is explored by Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices. Their programme of “Scandinavian Cantatas” presents both of Buxtehude’s little-known short works in Latin, including the composer’s only Missa brevis written in the stile antico. Organist Bine Brydorf has already recorded a survey of Buxtehude’s organ music on historic instruments for Dacapo but here she provides two magnificent solo performances played on the organ of St Mary’s in Elsinore (where Buxtehude worked from 1660 until 1668 when he got his job for life at St Mary’s in Lubeck).
The Theatre of Voices convey a compelling atmosphere of drama, commitment and plangent sonorities in Buxtehude’s setting of Pangue lingua gloriosi (a medieval hymn attributed to Thomas Aquinas), and the introductory sonata to the psalm Ecce nunc benedicite Domino is played with refined joyfulness. Even though Buxtehude probably did not compose Accedite gentes, its text of paraphrased psalms is communicated with vigour and authority. The Swedish concertato chorale Herren vår Gud is performed eloquently and the lamentful aria Att du Jesu vill mig höra is sung sincerely by soprano Else Torp. Dacapo’s stunning sound engineering, Kerala Synder’s expert essay and the superb musicianship of the six voices (personnel almost identical to Hillier’s Schutz cycle with Ars Nova Copenhagen) and seven instrumentalists (led immaculately by violinist Peter Spissky) make this easy to recommend enthusiastically.
David Vickers
01.02.11, MusicWeb International
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
A welcome addition to the Buxtehude recordings which were issued or reissued in the anniversary year of 2007 and which still continue to come forth. This is well worth having for the quality of the music—not all of it ‘Scandinavian’, despite the title and the fact that two of the texts are in Swedish—the performances and the recording.
Bine Bryndorf’s complete recording of the organ works, also for the da Capo label, was one of the highlights of Buxtehude year and her contributions here are no less welcome—perhaps they will tempt listeners to explore one or more of those albums, on CD or from classicsonline. Passionato.com also have three of the volumes in lossless flac.
Paul Hillier is a real pluralist: not only has he recorded for a variety of labels, but his expertise stretches from the late-medieval Old Hall Manuscript (Virgin 5613932, download only, from Passionato.com) via William Billings (Harmonia Mundi HCX3957048 and 3957128) to Terry Riley (in C, da Capo 8.226049). These Buxtehude works with the Theatre of Voices are among the very best recordings which he has offered us.
The sound is mp3 only, but at the highest bit-rate, so little is lost, apart from the SACD layer on the parent CD, which, on the strength of the download, must be very good. Full marks to classicsonline for including the important booklet with this and so many of their recent downloads. It’s also available to Naxos Music Library subscribers.
Brian Wilson Download Roundup
03.01.11, Culture Catch
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
Baroque composer Dietrich Buxtehude (c.1637–1707) was probably born in a Danish town that’s now in Sweden. The son of an organist, he became one as well, and is best known as a composer for that instrument, but like many church musicians he also wrote choral music. This disc has two organ works (played by Bryndorf) for variety, but focuses on his choral writing, with six texts in Latin (including his only “stile antico” work, the uncertainly attributed Missa alla brevis—one of only two recordings currently in print) and two in Swedish—the only two that have survived. Most of the choral works are short and in a concerto-esque style that alternates instrumental passages with vocal sections. None but the most devoted Baroque-philes will have heard much, if any, of this material; kudos to Hillier for putting together this fascinating and enjoyable program.
Steve Holtje
03.12.10, ClassicsToday.com
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
As the notes point out, Buxtehude “never held a position that required him to compose vocal music,” but as these works show, he was no stranger to the practice, writing for the voice with adept concision that shows a remarkably wide expressive range and engaging tunefulness. The works are not complex by any means, and employ a minimal contingent of strings and/or organ just sufficient to support and add color to the vocal parts, and to supply textural and occasional imitative or contrasting thematic interest.
These little cantatas—each lasting between five and eight minutes—feature four or five voices (in one case, only a solo singer), with texts in Latin or (in two instances) Swedish, drawn from the Psalms or religious poetry. In addition to the cantatas—and a welcome organ Praeludium and Passacaglia—we hear the Kyrie and Gloria of a Missa alla brevis, Buxtehude’s “only strictly liturgical work”; the extraordinary and delightfully surprising chromatic passages in the final few pages of the Gloria make this one of the program’s more memorable—and immediately repeatable—moments.
Paul Hillier’s one-voice-to-a-part configuration works very well for these pieces whose style often seems closer to the earlier 17th-century Italian madrigal than to northern European church music of the late 1600s (the opening vocal flourishes and overall expressive character of “Ecce nunc benedicite Domino”, for instance). All of these singers are excellent, but among them Else Torp is particularly fine in her solo-cantata “Att du Jesu vill mig höra” (That you will hear me, Jesus). The instrumental ensemble and continuo playing, as well as the solo-organ renditions by Buxtehude expert Bine Bryndorf, are equally stylish and assured—and everything is recorded in state-of-the-art sound, from the church of St. Mary’s, Elsinore (Helsingør), where Buxtehude once served as organist, and who played the (now restored) instrument heard here.
David Vernier
01.12.10, AUDIOPHILE AUDITION
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
Not known for his vocal music, and never required to write any, this composer has a real flair for the essence of sacred text setting.
Danish composer Dietrich Buxtehude never held a position, including his one at St. Mary’s in Lubeck—for 35 years—that mandated the composition of any vocal music at all. Nevertheless, over 120 works of the genre issued from his pen in four languages in mostly sacred texts. His position as organist and work master at the church was supplemented by his appointment as administrator and treasurer of the church, making him almost as highly paid as the pastor. He was not responsible for the music of the Lutheran service, but instead wrote for the communion, vespers, or the late afternoon post-vespers concerts that he inaugurated.
His cantatas were a mixture of arias and concertos in one unit, always on sacred but not necessarily liturgical texts. It is striking to hear long passages of basically instrumental dialog to be followed by primarily aria-type declamations which have as their basis a concrete homophonic style (as opposed to the vast polyphonic contributions for chorus by both Bach and Handel). Even in the “concerto” areas where the instrumentals dominate there is not what we would consider true polyphonic music at play, as in the organ works (two included on this disc).
However, Buxtehude’s contrapuntal talents are aptly demonstrated when we get to the only example of the stile antico on this disc, his Short Mass, including only the Kyrie and Gloria, typical of this peculiar German Lutheran variant of the Mass. But here the composer hearkens back to the sixteenth century with a continuo-only accompaniment and plenty of imitative counterpoint that ranks with the best of what we find in the late medieval period in the colder north European countries.
This is an outstanding release, stirred to great heights by the ever-energetic Paul Hillier and his marvelous Theater, recorded in vivid and comforting hi-res surround sound at the church of St. Mary’s in Helsingor. The music will surprise you, and you might come to the conclusion that J.S. Bach, who walked a great distance to hear Buxtehude’s legendary organ playing, might have been as interested in some other aspects of his art as well. At least this wonderful disc points to that possibility.
5 stars
Steven Ritter
01.11.10, David's Review Corner
Scandinavian Cantatas, Dacapo Records
Always considered a German composer, Dietrich Buxtehude was probably born in Denmark where he spent his first thirty years before moving to Lubeck in 1667. He would have been familiar with the Swedish language, and, working as a church organist, would have gained a knowledge of Latin. Though never holding a position that required him to compose vocal music, it is believed he composed early oratorios, the vocal music that has survived coming in a very diverse format. So why did he choose Swedish for works that probably come from his years in Lubeck? Often in a virtuoso style, the scene is here set by Pange Lingua Gloriosi, an outgoing piece at odds with its possible use in the distribution of communion. I much enjoyed both the four-part chorale, Herren var Gud, and Else Torp’s soprano solo, Att du Jesu vill mig Hora, while Missa alla Brevis is unique as being his only score strictly intended for liturgical use. It contains only the Kyrie and Gloria of the Catholic Mass, the intertwining strands creating a complex texture. The disc ends with a joyous Domine Salvum Fac Regem, the instrumental group having been excellent throughout. Paul Hillier’s conducting sweeps away dusty cobwebs. There is a learned period awareness, but also a fresh and vital quality that I particularly delight in. The disc is completed by two of Buxtehude’s organ works: the Preludium in E Minor and the D minor Passacaglia. Both are played by Bine Bryndorf with more brio than we normally encounter.
David Denton