Purcell Quartet

By the end of his life, the fame of Dietrich Buxtehude as an organist was so great that in 1706 the young J.S. Bach took four weeks’ leave from his employment at Arnstadt and travelled on foot over 200 miles to Lübeck to hear him perform in concert. Ironically, the meteoric rise of the career of Bach himself as a composer meant that, until very recently, Buxtehude was primarily known simply as a forerunner to the great man, when in fact he was a major composer in his own right.

These Trio Sonatas for violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord are remarkable examples of Buxtehude’s beautiful chamber music, and anyone expecting them to follow a set of pre-established procedures will be surprised. Inventive and full of life, each of the sonatas is different from the others, ranging from dance-like pieces and little fugues to variation sets with some dynamic duets between the violin and viola da gamba, and slow, airy pieces too.

The recording complements CHAN0766 (Trio Sonatas, Op. 1) of which Early Music Today wrote: ‘The Purcell Quartet brings its customary virtues to these perceptive period-instrument interpretations: incisiveness, tonal transparency and excellent rapport and blend.’

Through twenty-nine years and nearly fifty recordings of a huge range of repertoire, The Purcell Quartet has established itself as a leader in the area of baroque chamber music, not shrinking away from taking on fully staged productions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Orfeo. The Quartet has toured the world, including the USA, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Japan, Turkey, and all the countries of Europe, and collaborated with the very finest singers, among them Susan Gritton, Nancy Argenta, Catherine Bott, Emma Kirkby, Julia Gooding, Michael Chance, Dominique Visse, Guy de Mey, Mark Padmore, Charles Daniels, Peter Harvey, and Richard Wistreich. The Purcell Quartet has recorded exclusively for Chandos Records since 1987, its discography now numbering more than forty discs.

Bach is arguably the most influential composer ever to have lived; his music is renowned for intricate polyphonic textures, poetic melody lines and thrusting terraced dynamics. This Rough Guide showcases Bach’s inimitable genius in all its forms and It includes a bonus disc performed by the world-renowned pianist Angela Hewitt.

Bonus CD: The Rough Guide to Angela Hewitt Plays Bach

From intricate fugues to grand orchestral suites – enjoy Bach’s varied repertoire on this Rough Guide. We have handpicked a collection from some fantastic works to feature on this album. The bonus disc highlights Bach’s vast keyboard repertoire, as performed by the masterful Angela Hewitt. Enjoy the extra music, but don’t stop there – details of the source albums are included in the CD booklet, guiding you further on your musical adventure.

This new release from Chandos’ early music label, Chaconne, focuses on Buxtehude’s seven cantatas, collectively known as Membra Jesu nostri. These are among Buxtehude’s best-known works, and perfectly exemplify the seventeenth-century preference for musical structures that are broadly symmetrical, but subtly varied in detail. Each of the seven cantatas has roughly the same shape: Biblical passages are set for the whole ensemble and enclose stanzas from the mediaeval poem Rhythmica oratio, which are set as arias for reduced vocal forces and interspersed with instrumental ritornelli.

Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri takes the form of a sequence of seven meditations on the crucified body of Jesus, beginning with the feet (‘Ad pedes’), followed by the knees (‘Ad genua’), the hands (‘Ad manus’), the side (‘Ad latus’), the breast (‘Ad pectus’), the heart (‘Ad cor’), and the face (‘Ad faciem’). As such, the work is written from the perspective of a penitent kneeling at the foot of the cross and gradually extending his gaze upwards, meditating on each part of the body in turn. The keys chosen for the cantatas seem to have added symbolic meaning. As the gaze rises, they move from flats to sharps, from C minor to E minor, before finally returning to the opening key to produce a beautifully unified cycle.

On this release the cantata cycle is complemented by Matthias Weckmann’s Kommet her zu mir alle, a setting of the words from St Matthew’s Gospel (11: 28 – 30), in which the composer gives the words of Jesus to a virtuoso bass singer with an impressive range of nearly two octaves, a part here performed by Peter Harvey, and provides him with an accompaniment of two violins, three bass viols, and continuo.

The works on this disc are performed by an excellent ensemble of early music specialists. As exclusive artists, The Purcell Quartet is today popularising the cantatas of Buxtehude in concerts and recordings involving a fabulous quartet of soloists – Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Charles Daniels, and Peter Harvey – to which, for the occasion, the group is joined by the soprano Elin Monahan Thomas. The Quartet has also recorded a huge range of music exclusively for Chandos, including works by Purcell, Corelli, Lawes, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Weckmann, Buxtehude, Leclair, Schütz, Couperin, and Biber, to outstanding critical and public acclaim. The early music specialists Fretwork, the viol ensemble, also performs on this recording.

Buxtehude’s legacy, for many centuries neglected, has more recently been re-appraised and its importance accepted, not only for the quality of its craftsmanship but also for its undeniable influence on composers such as J.S. Bach. In fact, it is reputed that Bach walked over 200 miles to hear Buxtehude perform on the organ, so extraordinary was his reputation.

Chaconne has previously recorded sacred cantatas of Buxtehude, but this is the label’s first recording of secular instrumental works of the composer.

The VII Suonate, Op. 1 have now been recorded by The Purcell Quartet, who consistently receives good reviews, and is renowned for its artistry in repertoire of this kind. The trio sonatas are a remarkable example of Buxtehude’s beautiful chamber music and together with the trio sonatas Op. 2 are the only compositions that Buxtehude issued in print.

HIS MAJESTYS SAGBUTTS & CORNETTS, are pleased to announce their latest release on their signature label, SFZ Music, following the acclaimed 2008 release of music by Giovanni Battista Grillo and the release this year of Buccaneer, a tale of musical piracy. For this groundbreaking recording of canzonas for ogni sorte di stromenti ('all sorts of instruments') by diversi eccellentissimi musici ('various most excellent composers'), collected by the Venetian publisher Alessandro Raverii in 1608, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts have collaborated with the Purcell Quartet and the lute consort Chordophony to explore the kaleidoscopic possibilities of early 17th-century instrumentation. Some of the highlights of the CD include the rarely heard sonority of a consort of eight sagbutts; the premiere recording of a matched consort of lutes; wonderful cori spezzati dialogue effects between the wind and string groups; and the joy and spontaneity of improvised ornamentation. Including a number of canzonas by Giovanni Gabrieli, this CD represents an important milestone on His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts' epic project to record the complete oeuvre of the master.This recording also offers a wonderful opportunity to hear the music of Gabrieli's contemporaries in the field of instrumental composition:Antegnati, Chilese, Frescobaldi, Grillo, Guami, Lappi, Luzzaschi, Maschera, Massaino and Merulo.

"This consort is the pre-eminent group of its kind" Classic FM

"These players demonstrate perfectly how a balance of scholarship and expert period performance can restore familiar music to such radiant good health that we wondered how it ever survived before." BBC