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Dietrich BUXTEHUDE (c.1637-1707)
Befiehl dem Engel, dass er komm BuxWV 10 [4:41]
Dein edles Herz, der Liebe Thron BuxWV 14 [9:42]
Eins bitte ich vom Herrn BuxWV 24 [17:45]
Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort BuxWV 27 [4:52]
Jesu, Meine Freude BuxWV 60 [9:48]
Nun danket alle Gott BuxWV 79 [10:14]
Wo soll ich fliehen hin BuxWV 112 [17:05]
Capella Angelica
Lautten Compagney/Wolfgang Katschnerr
rec. Franckesche Stiftungen, Freylinghausensaal, Halle/Saale, January 2007
CARUS 83.193 [75:01]

 

Once more Carus has enriched the Buxtehude discography. There are three premiere recordings here – the extensive Wo soll ich fliehen hin, the shorter but equally powerful Dein edles Herz, der Liebe Thron and the compact Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort. If the performances were ill judged or prosaic this would be less a matter of pressing interest but in my experience Carus’s performances are invariably well prepared and strongly idiomatic. So it proves here. That could perhaps be divined given that the Lautten Compagney is on hand, directed by Wolfgang Katschnerr. The choral honours go to the excellent Capella Angelica.

All forces make themselves vibrantly heard in Nun danket alle Gott BuxWV 79, an elegant and fulsome setting. The cornetti of the Lautten Compagney are in especially fine form but note too the expressive depth of the lines auf dass seine Gnade stets bei uns bliebe where the full measure of the setting can best be judged. The complex dialogue of Christ and a soul that lies embedded in the text of Wo soll ich fliehen hin is equally persuasively realised. Christ’s warmly consoling bass aria is balanced by the soul’s So komm ich nun, an aria of such expressive conciliation and touching belief that one wonders that it hasn’t at some time been extracted for performance on disc. This cantata exudes a rich vein of intimacy and reflectiveness and its first appearance on disc is highly to be welcomed.

Dein edles Herz is another little known cantata receiving a premiere recording. It was adapted from the sixth part of Rhytmica Oratio written by Arnulf de Louvain, a writer and text in which Buxtehude showed considerable interest. Readers may know that he took the text for his c.1680 Membra Jesu nostri BuxWV 75, seven compact cantatas based on the Latin text, which Carus has also recorded recently. There’s some incisive and well-moulded string playing here and a decent enough high tenor solo in the third verse Durch deinen Tod. The best known of all these pieces is Jesu, Meine Freude which uses Johann Crüger’s popular 1653 melody. This receives a fluid and good performances though the strings very occasionally go flat and the soprano soloist comes through the left channel in a rather distracting sort of way. Things are redeemed in Erhalt uns – bright, solid, and very confident – and in Eins bitte ich vom Herrn where the very plangent flautist makes a really impressive showing. My only reservations here concern the over-drilled crispness of the consonants and excessively rolled "r" in the Coro IV – Mit der Welt. They sound too officious for comfort.

The booklet is handsomely done and the texts are in German and English. This Buxtehude series from Carus is gathering momentum and is proving highly impressive.

Jonathan Woolf

 

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