Buxtehude: Passacaglia in D minor, BuxWV161

Buxtehude and Bach deeply marked the Baroque world of which they were unquestionable heroes. This CD features Ivana Vallotti’s sublime performances of Buxtehude and Bach organ works, both striking for their exuberant creativity, wonderful contrasts, and palpable joy.

This release presents several polyphonic motets from the Renaissance and Baroque periods in which the joy of Christmas Eve is gloriously portrayed. The Hamrahlid choir was founded in 1967, performing and touring extensively in Europe and of course, in the Choir’s home territory of Iceland.

The Passacaglia is a musical form based on a repeated bass line over which variations are composed. The form was popular during the 17th century but proved to be a challenge in its structural restrictions for composers of later periods, continuously renewing and extending the form, while keeping to its basic formula.

This original program brings together composers from 4 centuries: from Kerll, Couperin, Buxtehude and the monumental Passacaglia in C minor by J.S. Bach, far into the 20-th century with Reger, Shostakovich and Jan Welmers.

Recorded on the magnificent Martti Pothan organ Kotka Church in Finland, by young virtuoso Matthias Havinga, whose earlier recording on this organ (Brilliant Classics 94203) with Italian Concertos by J.S. Bach received enthusiastic reviews in the press.

New recording, including extensive liner notes and information on the instrument. Consisting of variations framed in a constantly repeated basso ostinato, the passacaglia is a musical form with a long and fruitful history. This release is dedicated to eight such examples which, taken from four countries and all performed on the organ, divide either side of the year 1800 to reveal the form’s extensive and inventive development over time. The passacaglia was particularly popular during the 17th century, when it became known for its limited range of keys, slow triple meter and short, simple theme of two or four.

In 1904 Karl Straube published his own edition of music by Bach, Walther, Pachelbel, Buxtehude and others and adapted them to the organ’s modern capabilities. Today, the edition offers an impressive glance at historical performance practice. Andreas Sieling gives us an authentic look at the interpretation of baroque organ music at the beginning of the 20th century.

This latest addition to Christopher Herrick’s acclaimed Buxtehude catalogue is performed on the magnificent Organ of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge.

Everything heard on this disc was composed over three-hundred years ago when printed music was a rarity and organists were required to be highly proficient in the art of improvisation. Certainly none of Buxtehude’s organ works was printed in his lifetime, and it was not until 1875 that they first became available. Herrick’s communication is exceptional in these stimulating performances and his inspired interpretations are so vivid that they appear improvisatory in their approach.

This ‘themed’ programme by Da Pacem derives from a series of concerts devoted to Bach’s infamous journey on foot to hear Buxtehude play. Did he have leave of absence from his employers? Did the four month absence change his style for ever?

Buxtehude achieved a staggering synthesis of the polyphonic, numerical and rhetorical traditions of his predecessors with a very personal poetry, taking care to make his music accessible to everyone, from the specialist to the layman. It is not surprising that Bach took him as his model.

This recording offers an unusual selection of Dietrich Buxtehude’s vocal music performed by 2010 Grammy® Award winning ensemble Theatre of Voices conducted by Paul Hillier. Among these rarely heard works with texts in Swedish and Latin, we find cantatas in the form of virtuoso concertos, as well as arias and chorale settings and Buxtehude’s only work in the stile antico, the Missa alla brevis.

A natural choice of recording venue for Hillier and his team was St. Mary’s Church in Elsinore where Buxtehude was employed as an organist in 1660-68. Bine Bryndorf is the guest organist and plays the authentic (restored) ‘Buxtehude organ’.