Buxtehude: Canzonetta in D Minor, BuxWV 168

“Buxtehude's organ music dives into two categories. There are the freely composed works in the standard forms of his time, and the pieces based on pre-existing music. The first disc in Christopher Herrick's series is a neat mixture of both. Preludes, fugues, toccatas and a chaconne are mixed with chorale preludes, variations and the chorale fantasia on Nun Freut Euch, Lieben Christen Gemein. Herrick's performances, on the organ of Helsingør Cathedral in Denmark, sometimes try a bit too hard to be ear-catching, yet their rhythmic vitality bodes well for the discs to come.” The Guardian, 16th May 2008 ***

“The recorded sound is warm and reassuring offering an ideal balance twixt instrument and acoustic. Production, engineering and playing are all splendid/” Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

“Herrick's razor-sharp articulation is at one with Buxtehude's fastidiously chiselled counterpoint…” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 ****

“Herrick embarks on another epic for Hyperion, and the first instalment whets the appetite. Buxtehude’s delicate contrapuntal intricacy is offset by occasional flamboyance … the organ of Helsingør Cathedral, on Buxtehude’s home ground of Denmark, offers an excellent colour” Classical Music

“Herrick displays great energy and a keen ear for registrational variety” American Record Guide

“This recording is perhaps the most essential of the three discs so far released in this series. The Aria: ‘La Capricciosa’ is undoubtedly Buxtehude's masterpiece, and probably a model for Bach's Goldberg Variations. Another excellent recording that all lovers of harpsichord music should own.” MusicWeb International (on the original Dacapo release)

“Ton Koopman completes the exquisite solo oeuvre by Buxtehude with captivating élan. Witness the sheer richness of Buxtehude's luminous textures, as well as the finely drawn and grateful melodic contours.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2008

“Performing on two copies of Stefanini and Ruckers harpsichords, Ton Koopman completes the exquisite solo oeuvre by Buxtehude with captivating élan. For a musician with somewhat precipitous tendencies, Koopman here delivers a considered programme of mainly standard four-movement suites, interpolated with other contemporaneous genres, from variations to the flamboyance of the 'stylus phantasticus' of toccatas and the like.
Koopman's most significant achievement is the poetry he brings to Buxtehude's cultivated and understated world of pre-Telemann domestic music. This is where the Suites appear as the apogee of a tradition which Froberger honed and which Bach extended in his early works.
Indeed, keen ears will notice the prescient melodic seeds of the English Suites and, more specifically, the Canzona in C whose turns perhaps inspired the ambitious young Turk in the Capriccio in E (BWV993).
That aside, witness the sheer richness of Buxtehude's luminous textures, as well as the finely drawn and grateful melodic contours. The opening Aria in C (with 10 variations) reveals the warmth of both Buxtehude's hypnotically life-affirming variations and Koopman's concentrated placement and esprit.
Within such compositional calibre and refinement, Koopman also explores a steeliness in the investigative lines of the fine C major Suite which concludes the first disc; as throughout, the tempo relationships between movements are thoughtfully rendered, with the 'gamey' meantone tuning and elegant characterisation all conspiring towards a notable 'world premiere' set of harpsichord recordings. In sum, an outstanding release in this enterprising series.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Koïto's playing is persuasive. Nothing is over-driven, the quieter and still moments ae sublime and she steers her way through the many tempo changes with ease.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“here we have an Italian eager to touch base with his inner Teuton, as Stella sets well-ordered lucidity above unfettered flamboyance. Indeed, he sometimes misses the edgy danger Koopman brings to Buxtehude's boldest strokes, but he's an unfailingly intelligent and revealing guide to a body of work that cries out to be better known.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ****