DIETRICH BUXTEHUDE

MEMBRA JESU NOSTRI

ABOUT THIS RECORDING

We neither know the date of Dietrich Buxtehude's birth or his nationality. Germany claim him, but our friends at Dacapo in Copenhagen would declare Danish ownership. They would cite the obituary notice after his death in 1707 which read «he recognized Denmark as his native country, whence he came to our region».
He certainly spent most of his life in Germany, where he worked as organist and composer at the main church in Lübeck for nearly 40 years.
He left around 114 sacred vocal works, a vast number of compositions for keyboard and organ, and a number of cantatas including 'Membra Jesu nostri' which dates from 1680.
Buxtehude pictures, in seven sections, the body of Jesus - his feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart and face. Each major section is then subdivided into five parts. It shows a composer so academically correct that his tuition by his father must have been of the highest standard. Even at this early stage in the development of music he was using purely instrumental music to punctuate the choral sections, and it has the feeling of a work intended for 'enjoyment' rather than simple devotion.
The fact that Buxtehude was the finest church composer working in Germany at that time, was somewhat compromised by his reluctance to travel, so that his music became of a localised interest. That is the direct opposite to Johann Rosenmüller who travelled extensively promoting his own music - some of his travels being somewhat enforced when he was discovered having sexual frolics with his pupils.
He developed orchestral compositions, and even in this short Sinfonia from 1670 we hear a very individual voice that brings together the German and Italian school of composition.
Little is known about his early life, but he was born around 1619 and died in 1684.
There is little doubt that both composers must have exerted an influence on the Bach family, and Buxtehude's cantatas had already pointed the way to the shape of choral music to come.
This recording was made in Italy using the choir from Swiss Radio in Lugano, a multi-purpose ensemble that specialise in Renaissance and Baroque music. They began life in 1936 and have made numerous commercial recordings.

Diego Fasolis is better known as an organist, and has won many prizes on that instrument. He has also turned to conducting, and in 1993 was appointed director of the Swiss Radio Choir in Lugano.
Two small instrumental groups combine on this disc. Both were originated in the early 1980's in the north of Italy, and tour extensively to most of Europe's Early Music Festivals.
The disc was made at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Treviso, in March 1994 by Italian radio.

C.B.

There have been two previous period instrument recordings of Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri: Ton Koopman’s on Erato (no longer listed), and a second on Archiv conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, apparently still available. I have no hesitation, however, in recommending the present 'budget' production on Naxos over the Archiv. From the unlikely origins of Italian-speaking Switzerland comes a reading that is as musical, period-conscious and culturally à propos as could be imagined.

First the music, however. By the late 17th century, the Pietistic movement had spread its nefarious influence to Northern Germany. Perhaps in sympathy to this, Buxtehude was drawn to set this very curious Latin poetry to music for use in his Abendmusiken, a series of Advent concerts given each year on five successive Sunday evenings in the Lübecker Marienkirche. The text (the title loosely translates to «The Body of Our Jesus») deals in lugubrious fashion with the body parts of the Crucified Christ, with the individual cantatas bearing such titles as «To His Feet», «To His Knees», and «To His Breast». The opening lines of «To His Breast» give an idea of the general eccentricity of the text: «Be as newborn babes, who desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby...» Buxtehude sets this strange stuff to music of such incredible reverence and devotion that, unless the listener knows Latin, he or she is apt to pay more attention to the power of the music than to the weirdness of the text. Each of the cantatas is prefaced by an instrumental prelude, often quite extensive and with very demanding parts for the two violins. The entire cycle, lasting some sixty minutes, will leave the listener with an intense devotional feeling rare in North German music of the period.

The beauty and competency of the performances took me utterly by surprise. One does not ordinarily expect such work to come out of Italian-speaking Switzerland, but here it is. The solo singing, with the exception of the countertenor, is uniformly ravishing, the choral and instrumental component extremely competent. The continuo, by the way, consists of archlute and organ, entirely appropriate and 'up-to-date' for the forward-looking Buxtehude. The recorded sound is unusually spacious and realistic, and full texts, translations, and liner notes are provided (Naxos didn’t scrimp on this one).

Waste no time in acquiring this CD - it will be the best six-dollar purchase you’ll ever make!

Diapason d'Or - Choc du Monde de la Musique

Un très bel enregistrement d'une des oeuvres les plus recueillies et profondes de Buxtehude. Les interprètes se donnent entièrement à la beauté du texte (avec une mention personnelle pour la basse, Daniele Carnovich). N'hésitez pas, il s'agit d'un très beau disque pour un prix défiant toute concurrence.

SU