Buxtehude: Te Deum Laudamus, BuxWv 218

Christopher Herrick’s acclaimed series of Buxtehude’s complete organ works continues with a selection of his praeludia, toccatas, ostinato works, and canzonas, interspersed with chorale preludes and variations. For this disc he turns to the magnificent organ of Trondheim Cathedral in Norway, originally built by Joachim Wagner (1690–1749) and restored to its former baroque glory in 1994.

Highlights from this disc include the brilliant, flamboyant Praeludium in G minor, BuxWV149. Here, as so often in Buxtehude’s organ works, one can picture an organist seated at a console completely free of music and giving his imagination full rein. Also, the Chorale Fantasia on Te Deum, BuxWV218, the only plainsong-based work on this CD and one of Buxtehude’s longest and grandest works for organ.

The Arp Schnitger organ in St. Ludger’s Church in Norden is among the most important baroque instruments of its kind.

The artists perform an appealing programme designed to demonstrate the strengths of the instrument.

This is Luchterhandt and Janssen’s third release on “their instrument”.

Masaaki Suzuki here performs a varied selection of Buxtehude’s organ works ranging from brief chorale preludes to the magnificent Te Deum Laudamus and the celebrated Ciaccona in E minor. Although he is most widely known for his on-going, highly praised series of Bach’s cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki in fact began his professional career as a church organist at the age of twelve, later studying the instrument both in Tokyo and in Amsterdam.

This is the tenth recording in the outstanding series of the complete works of Dieterich Buxtehude by Ton Koopman and the fifth and final part of the organ works. It presents a selection which contains the remainder of Buxtehude’s organ works of the two major categories, free and chorale-based compositions, alongside the complete organ works of Nicolaus Bruhns (1665-1697). Bruhns was Buxtehude’s most gifted pupil and was an important figure in the development of Buxtehude’s style of composition. Buxtehude’s organ works are his most significant contribution to the history of music. They consist of a comprehensive body of 90 compositions, of which more than half are chorale settings.

The organ featured on this 2-CD set is one of only two surviving organs by Erasmus Bielfeldt and has been restored on the basis of the great organ building art of the baroque in 1990 by Ahrend.

Ton Koopman is one of the world’s foremost early music keyboard specialists and directors. His recording of the complete Bach Cantatas received worldwide acclaim. He is president of the International Dieterich Buxtehude Society and one of the world’s leading authorities on his music.