Buxtehude: Nun bitten wir den Heilgen Geist, BuxWV209

Christopher Herrick’s acclaimed series of Buxtehude’s Complete Organ Works reaches a fifth and final volume. Here he returns to the composer’s (disputed) home country of Denmark, and the organ of Mariager Klosterkirke.

Highlights include the magnificent Praeludium in C major, BuxWV137 (known to English-speaking organists as the ‘Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne in C’) and the Chorale Fantasia on the Christmas melody ‘Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ’, BuxWV188—among the longest and most elaborate of Buxtehude’s chorale settings.

On this CD works by Tunder, Hasse, Buxtehude, Bach, Schiefferdecker and Bruhns are performed by Martin Rost on the Stellwagen Organ (1959), St. Marien Stralshund. Martin Rost tracked down the original plans for this instrument so that it could be restored with loving care.

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.