Release Date: 01 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313241323
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BUXTEHUDE
Description
Dietrich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707)Harpsichord WorksDietrich Buxtehude was probably born in 1637 inOldesloe in the Duchy of Holstein, then Danishterritory, now German. A year later the family moved toHelsingborg in Scania, then Danish, now Swedish,when his father Johannes was appointed organist. Thusthree countries call Buxtehude their own. Given thefluidity of borders in the region, it is of no greatimportance, but Buxtehude is said to have consideredhimself a Dane. Perhaps the Free Imperial City ofL??beck, where he spent the last forty years of hisseventy-year lifespan as organist of the Marienkirche,has the best claim. Like Sweelinck before him, whoseldom left Amsterdam, Buxtehude stayed close to hisinstrument all through his years of maturity.Buxtehude's large corpus of brilliant organ musichas overshadowed his equally impressive vocal andchamber music, some of which was composed for hisfamous Advent Sunday concerts, the Abendmusiken.His harpsichord works are less numerous, and buriedmainly at the back of organ editions, where they areignored by organists because they have no pedal parts.The standard edition of the keyboard works which areclearly secular, suites and variations, announces itself as'Buxtehude - Piano Works', which is really no help. Thepieces contained therein seem at first glance ratherconventional. They are deceptively simple, like Scarlattior Mozart. It is hoped that this recording will contributeto a re-evaluation of Buxtehude as one of the finestGerman composers for the harpsichord of theseventeenth century, the only one worthy of mention inthe same breath with Froberger. He did what Bach didhalf a century later: he took the forms he saw aroundhim, French suites, Italian toccatas and canzonas,variation techniques from the German Sweelinck-schooland later on from Rome, and made them unmistakablyhis own.Of the two suites offered here, the Suite in G minorfollows the Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigueorder of dances that had only very recently becomefashionable. The other is a rare hybrid of suite andchorale-partita, wherein the chorale melody Auf meinenlieben Gott is varied through a sequence of dancemovements, Allemande - Double (variation)- Sarabande- Courante - Gigue.The two Praeludia hark back to the luxuriantRoman toccata tradition of the earlier seventeenthcentury. Quasi-improvisatory passages alternate withbrief fugues. That in G minor is one of the grandestexamples of this Stylus Phantasticus. There is no fixedform here. The compartmentalised Prelude and Fuguewas a product of classicising tendencies in the latter partof the century.The Toccata in G major already clearly tends in thisdirection. Buxtehude is responding here, as well, to thenew, more mechanical virtuosity of the famous Romanharpsichordist Bernardo Pasquini. There is only onefugue after the initial free section. It is followedseamlessly by a remarkable coda, where a six-note basslineis varied like a chaconne on a roller-coaster.The Canzonetta in G maj
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
