Dieterich Buxtehude was a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services. He composed in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. Today, Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers in Germany of the mid-Baroque.

In 1680, Dietrich Buxtehude sent his friend Gustav Düben the score of Membra Jesu nostri. In this perfectly balanced work, he addresses the senses directly, immersing us in the sufferings of Christ: we feel the hammer blows, the heart that stops beating…

Buxtehude’s anthology and some of the most beautiful pages of North German repertory.

This CD gives a glimpse into the rich musical world of Dieterich Buxtehude and his contemporaries. These composers were active as Kapellmeisters and wrote music specifically to be performed during the concerts known as Abendmusiken or for various Collegia Musica. They were also associated with the Hamburg or North German School of the seventeenth century.

Since it's founding in Freiburg in 1958, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi has been one of the most important and ambitious labels for period performances. Over decades, globally-acclaimed recordings were created with outstanding musicians. The limited edition "Deutsche Harmonia Mundi: 100 Great Recordings" contains 100 outstanding DHM recordings with some of the most important and best artists in their field: Nuria Rial, Dorothee Mields, Al Ayre Espanol, Hille Perl, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Skip Sempé, Capriccio Stravagante, La Petite Bande, Gustav Leonhardt, Andrew Lawrence-King, Frieder Bernius, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Thomas Hengelbrock and many others.

Following on from and designed along the same lines as the Guide to Period Instruments, this boxed set includes an exhaustive introductory text as well as a great quantity of music excerpts on the set’s eight CDs. These extracts have been taken from the extensive repertoire recorded by Ricercar over many years, with excerpts from recordings kindly provided by our colleagues from Harmonia Mundi, Gimell, Accent, Alpha and Sony supplementing our programme where necessary. The Lutheran repertoire of the Renaissance has remained for all intents and purposes unrecorded up until now; the tracks illustrating this repertoire together with other excerpts have been recorded specially for this compilation by Vox Luminis.

For this first recording, Andrea Buccarella explores the history of the most emblematic form of Baroque music, from its appearance in Italy at the end of the sixteenth century right up to its apotheosis in Johann Sebastian Bach: the toccata. With its inventiveness, its formal freedom, its contrasting effects of virtuosity and emotion, the Italian toccata – whose name probably comes from the verb toccare (to touch/play) – opened the way for the stylus fantasticus that was to dominate Germany in the late seventeenth century.

Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) was a Danish-German composer and organist. He is recognized for bridging Renaissance and Baroque musical traditions, influencing composers such as J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel. Born in either Helsingborg, Sweden, or Helsingor, Denmark (the exact location remains uncertain), Buxtehude spent much of his career in Lubeck, Germany, where he served as organist at the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) from 1668 until his death. As a composer, Buxtehude is recognized for his organ works, including preludes, fugues, and chorale variations. His music blends intricate counterpoint with an expres- sive, almost improvisational character, making him one of the most significant figures in early Baroque music.

SEON (Studio Erichson) is a period music label by the legendary producer Wolf Erichson. Erichson founded the label in 1969 as one of the first labels dedicated only to authentic music. The recordings were made with the best available recording techniques of the time and still deliver a high quality product in line with today's standards. This special boxset offers all SEON CD reissues from the late 90s on 85 CDs in a limited edition boxset.

…Sopranos Emma Kirkby and Elin Manahan Thomas are excellent throughout…Harvey is a solid, dignified presence elsewhere as well, while tenor Charles Daniels and countertenor Michael Chance are at their eloquent best… Both The Purcell Quartet and Fretwork relish the variegated sonorities afforded by Buxtehude’s score, as well as the word painting, while blending with the voices to effect a homogenous yet multi-timbred sound of great beauty.

Trio Sonnerie have chosen five of the 14 sonatas by Buxtehude from the 1690s to demonstrate their considerable fluency and rapport. These are witty and elegant works, finely crafted and requiring the skills of virtuoso players. Monica Huggett and Sarah Cunningham capture their essence with happily chosen and neatly articulated tempos—the vivace movements are effortlessly played—and beautifully transparent textures. Mitzi Meyerson provides a stylish and secure accompaniment, particularly in the G major Largo and the B flat major Vivace (which is, in fact, a chaconne).

Dietrich Buxtehude composed his Membra Jesu nostri in Lübeck in 1680, and the work, drenched in emotion in a most un-Bachian way, has become increasingly popular in the 21st century. The title might be translated "Limbs of Our Jesus," but actually the Latin texts, of considerable antiquity, describe seven wounds supposedly suffered by Jesus Christ on the cross, and the work thus falls into a group of works in which the number seven takes on mystical significance. Various interpretations have been offered, with the majority adopting the one-voice-per-part technique, sometimes in a severe way, sometimes carrying a feeling of intimate chamber reflection.

Dietrich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri is a large-scale Passion work dedicated to the Swedish chapelmaster, Gustav Dübin, in whose notable collection, now at Uppsala, it holds a prominent place.

The last decade of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st centuries have produced an array of astonishingly gifted countertenors who continue to set new standards of excellence and reveal possibilities for male singers performing in the traditional range of women who haven't been heard since the days of the castrati. Iestyn Davies doesn't have the spectacular instrument of some of the most dazzling countertenors of his generation but in his more modest way, he is no less impressive. His voice is pure, without a trace of the hollow hootiness that was once characteristic so many countertenors, and is absolutely secure and full from the bottom to the top of his range.

This is a selection of outstanding examples of Buxtehude’s vocal and instrumental music. Settings of Latin biblical texts and ariosa-style works based on German hymns, alternate with instrumental sonatas. The recording has been given a special “North German” colouring through the use of a wide range of historical wind instruments such as the Baroque trombone and dulcian.