Buxtehude: Sacred Cantatas, Vol. 2

Purcell Quartet / Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby

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Buxtehude: Sacred Cantatas, Vol. 2 Review

by James Manheim

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.

Track Listing

Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 06:46 SpotifyAmazon
2 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 07:44 SpotifyAmazon
Nichts soll uns Scheiden, for SAB voices, 2 violins, violone & continuo, BuxWV 77
3 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 02:34 SpotifyAmazon
4 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:54 SpotifyAmazon
5 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 02:00 SpotifyAmazon
6 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 03:52 SpotifyAmazon
Dixit Dominus Domino meo (Psalm 109), for soprano, 2 violins, 2 violas, spinet, violone & continuo, BuxWV 17
7 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 00:44 SpotifyAmazon
8 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 02:43 SpotifyAmazon
9 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 00:52 SpotifyAmazon
10 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:30 SpotifyAmazon
11 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:22 SpotifyAmazon
12 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 02:48 SpotifyAmazon
An Filius non est Dei, for ATB voices, 2 violins, viola da gamba & continuo, BuxWV 6
13 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:16 SpotifyAmazon
14 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:28 SpotifyAmazon
15 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 05:12 SpotifyAmazon
16 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:09 SpotifyAmazon
17 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:44 SpotifyAmazon
18 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:17 SpotifyAmazon
Lobe den Herrn meine Seele, for tenor, 3 violins, 2 violas, violone & continuo, BuxWV 71
19 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 00:42 SpotifyAmazon
20 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 02:12 SpotifyAmazon
21 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 04:02 SpotifyAmazon
22 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:26 SpotifyAmazon
23 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 00:56 SpotifyAmazon
24 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 09:02 SpotifyAmazon
Herr, nun lässt du deinen Diener, for tenor, 2 violins & continuo, BuxWV 37
25 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 00:41 SpotifyAmazon
26 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:43 SpotifyAmazon
27 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 02:17 SpotifyAmazon
28 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 01:57 SpotifyAmazon
29 Michael Chance / Charles Daniels / Peter Harvey / Emma Kirkby / Purcell Quartet 07:22 SpotifyAmazon
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