If you have explored
all that the various recordings of Prætorius’s
Terpsichore have to offer, this
could be your next step. If, on the
other hand, you have yet to make the
acquaintance of that work, that should
be your first port of call.
This CD offers a selection
of the music of Buxtehude and his contemporaries
for the Abendmusiken in Lübeck
and for similar occasions in other North
German towns. In this the anniversary
year of his death it is hardly surprising
that the name of Buxtehude should appear
in the title of the disc. It is appropriate,
that it should be so, since his music
dominated the musical scene immediately
after the age of Schütz, Schein,
Scheidt and Demantius. Handel went to
Lübeck in hopes of becoming his
successor, but baulked at the condition
of marrying Buxtehude’s daughter, and
Bach made his famous round-trip of over
500 miles on foot to hear him perform.
The young members of
the ensemble Cæcilia-Concert present
the music of Buxtehude alongside that
of four of his near-contemporaries.
Of these Matthias Weckmann and Dietrich
Becker were Buxtehude’s seniors by a
few years, Johann Krieger and Johann
Theile his juniors. Apart from Buxtehude
himself and Krieger, who is best known
today for publishing in 1700-1 the first
annual cycle of cantatas of the kind
which we now associate with Bach, these
are merely names to most lovers of baroque
music. The opportunity to hear them
in the company of Buxtehude is, therefore,
welcome. Weckmann was a former pupil
of Schütz but neither he nor any
of the other composers approach the
talent of either Schütz or Buxtehude.
North German as these
composers are, the Venetian origin of
this kind of music is not hard to recognise
– transmitted from the Gabrielis and
Dario Castello via Schütz et
al, though a little tamer than when
it left Italy. None of the music makes
great intellectual claims on the listener,
but it is all very pleasant, if a little
unvaried. I have already indicated that
Prætorius’s music makes a better
place to start: his Terpsichore
is a model of how much variety can be
injected into music of this kind. Three
bargain recordings of the Prætorius
will do as well as any: in the lowest
price category that on Regis RRC1076,
strongly recommended by Gary Higginson,
the Philip Picket (475
9101), just reissued at low-mid-price
and recommended by Mark Sealey in an
earlier incarnation, and the pioneering
version by David Munrow, now on a super-bargain-price
2-CD Virgin Veritas, coupled with Susato’s
Danserye and Consort Music by
Morley (3 50003 2) All these recordings,
with their different virtues, are regular
visitors to my CD player. An older version,
by Collegium Terpsichore, on Eloquence,
now sounds rather dated.
The solo-harpsichord
piece (track 8) provides something of
a welcome break. Even Buxtehude does
not wholly emerge from the CD as the
master that we are beginning to recognise
him as. I deliberately first listened
to the music ‘blind’ and could not distinguish
that track 4, the Sonata in D, was by
Buxtehude, though I guessed him correctly
as the composer of the harpsichord-only
Aria. This, the longest piece
here, stands out from the rest of the
CD in style as well as being for the
solo instrument alone: its sub-title,
more Palatino, presumably refers
to its being written in a style popular
further South than Lübeck, in the
Rheinland-Pfalz or Palatinate. (I would
have welcomed a note about this in the
booklet: it merely reports that the
piece was based on a popular 17th-century
folk tune.)
Otherwise I found track
9, Buxtehude’s Sonata IV Op.2, the most
attractive work here: in this piece
the wind instruments are mercifully
not so predominant; violin, trombone
and continuo weave in and out in an
appealing fashion. I had not previously
heard any of the Op.1 or Op.2 Trio Sonatas
but the quality of this one tempts me
to explore them further, probably in
the Holloway-Mortensen-ter Linden versions
on Naxos 8.557248 (Op.1) and 8.557249
(Op.2) where the gamba plays the part
here allocated to the trombone. Gary
Higginson strongly recommended the
Op.1 CD: "I am in full agreement
with the ‘American Record Guide’ which
is quoted on the back of the CD case:
"It is difficult to imagine a better
recording of these pieces" and
I would add emphatically, "and,
of course, a better performance".
Glyn
Pursglove was, if anything, even
more enthusiastic about the Op.2 disc:
"Wonderful music, very well performed.
I have listened to the disc repeatedly
since it came into my hands. It gets
better every time."
Volume 6 of the Naxos
series of Buxtehude’s organ music (8.570311)
is currently in my in-tray – a preliminary
listening suggests that I shall recommend
it – and I recently recommended
a Carus recording of his Cantatas, also
associated with the Abendmusiken
concerts (83.193: on reflection, I should
have given it a thumbs-up at least).
If you want to get the measure of Buxtehude,
those are better places to look, along
with the ongoing series of Buxtehude
recordings on the Carus and Challenge
Classics labels.
The performers all
use copies of 17th-century
instruments – a boxwood cornetto, a
walnut cornettino, a maple-wood dulcian
and other modern copies, including a
2-manual harpsichord modelled on a 1638
Ruckers. No information is given about
the tuning of the harpsichord and chamber-organ
but the wind instruments are able to
cope with the pre-equal-temperament
requirement to play A-sharp and B-flat
as separate notes. We are not told anything
about the violin but its player, Anabelle
Ferdinand, has an impeccable baroque-music
pedigree as a former student of Monica
Huggett and Pavlo Beznosiuk. The other
performers are pictured on the cover
and inside the booklet with their instruments
(apart from the keyboard instruments,
of course) but neither Ms Ferdinand
nor her instrument appears anywhere.
The performances are
all very accomplished. I cannot imagine
that the better-known performers on
the Naxos recording outdo them in Op.2/4.
It is not the fault of the performers
that the style of music is so unvaried.
To have achieved greater variety would
have meant recruiting more players in
order to alternate a gamba with the
trombone, a violone with the dulcian
and a second violin with the cornettino
– all permissible variations noted by
the composers.
Where there is greater
variety, as in the two Buxtehude pieces
which I have singled out, their playing
blends extremely well. I note that the
Naxos performance of Op.2/4 is taken
rather more briskly, 8:32 against 8:54
here but there was no sense that this
new performance was other than well-paced.
The recording captures the performances
very well without drawing attention
to itself.
The booklet includes
a 17th-century painting of
St Cecilia at the organ – rather murky
in black-and-white reproduction – but
fails to explain its relevance to the
name of the ensemble. The fact that
these recordings were made, appropriately,
just before St Cecilia’s Day in 2006
is nowhere mentioned in the booklet.
Otherwise the notes
in the booklet are detailed and informative
about the music and the performers –
so detailed that it is hard to get the
booklet in and out of the case. For
once, there is no point in scouring
the Dutch and German notes for additional
information: all three are versions
of a common original.
I have awarded a thumbs-up
for the quality of the performances
and the recording. I am less certain
about the general appeal of some of
the music, as I have indicated.
Brian Wilson
for details
Cæcilia-Concert (Fiona Russell
(cornetto/cornettino); Adam Woolf (tenor
trombone); Wouter Verschuren (dulcian);
Kathryn Cok (reproduction Ruckers harpsichord
and portative organ); Annabelle Ferdinand
(violin)) 
