Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1 (1997)

performed by Emma Kirkby (soprano), Jaap ter Linden (viola da gamba), John Holloway (violin), Lars Ulrik Mortensen (harpsichord), Lars Ulrik Mortensen (organ), Manfredo Kraemer (violin)
composed by Dietrich Buxtehude

This Naxos issue of Dietrich Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1, was originally issued on Dacapo in Denmark in 1996. This intended series of Buxtehude's vocal music, featuring Emma Kirkby with John Holloway and Manfred Kraemer on violins, Jaap ter Linden on viola da gamba, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen on organ, ended with the first volume. Kirkby resumed the cycle on Chandos years later, essentially starting the series over with the Purcell Quartet in tow. The Chandos series ground to a halt after two volumes; by 2007, yet another ... Read More

This Naxos issue of Dietrich Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1, was originally issued on Dacapo in Denmark in 1996. This intended series of Buxtehude's vocal music, featuring Emma Kirkby with John Holloway and Manfred Kraemer on violins, Jaap ter Linden on viola da gamba, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen on organ, ended with the first volume. Kirkby resumed the cycle on Chandos years later, essentially starting the series over with the Purcell Quartet in tow. The Chandos series ground to a halt after two volumes; by 2007, yet another Buxtehude series was underway under Ton Koopman at Challenge Classics that promised to bring everything Dietrich Buxtehude composed; cross your fingers.Although his Membra Jesu Nostri is rightly considered one of the great choral masterworks of the Baroque era, Buxtehude's vocal output -- numbering more than 120 works -- seems to have a problem gaining the same kind of traction in the repertoire that his organ music has long enjoyed, even though plenty of it has been recorded. The... Read Less