Buxtehude/Schütz

Buxtehude’s fame as one of the greatest organ composers before Bach has rather overshadowed his impressive sacred vocal music. Gardiner directs a splendid account of the composer’s magnificent Membra Jesu nostri, vividly portraying the text setting’s madrigalistic features. Listen to the searing dissonances in ‘Ad manus’; the inspirational, wide spacing between voices at the words ‘Arise, my love’ in ‘Ad latus’, and the piece’s powerful emotional ‘heart’, ‘Ad cor’.

Our rating

5

Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:08 pm

COMPOSERS: Buxtehude/Schütz
LABELS: Archiv Masters
WORKS: Membra Jesu nostri; O bone Jesu, fili Mariae
PERFORMER: Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Fretwork/John Eliot Gardiner
CATALOGUE NO: 447 298-2 DDD (1990)

Buxtehude’s fame as one of the greatest organ composers before Bach has rather overshadowed his impressive sacred vocal music. Gardiner directs a splendid account of the composer’s magnificent Membra Jesu nostri, vividly portraying the text setting’s madrigalistic features. Listen to the searing dissonances in ‘Ad manus’; the inspirational, wide spacing between voices at the words ‘Arise, my love’ in ‘Ad latus’, and the piece’s powerful emotional ‘heart’, ‘Ad cor’. Also included is a fine performance of Schütz’s O bone Jesu. Both works are excellently preserved in spacious recording. Nicholas Rast

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