Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1

Dietrich Buxtehude (Composer), Lars Ulrik Mortensen (Performer), Emma Kirkby (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Emma Kirkby
• Composer: Dietrich Buxtehude
• Audio CD (February 27, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B000M2DNRS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,433 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Superstar at her Best, February 25, 2008

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Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)

Emma Kirkby can do anything with her voice that John Holloway can do with his violin, and vice versa. Together, they are marvelously supple and expressive, as conscious of each other's tone and phrasing as two falcons mating in mid-air. Kirkby was at her finest in 1996, singing angelically, when this performance was recorded. The variety of these thirteen arias for soprano, violins, and continuo display her full range of vocal technique, from Leider-like strophic songs to elaborately ornamented counterpoint.

Only violins with gut strings, in the Baroque manner, could possibly sound as much like the human voice as those of John Holloway and Manfred Kraemer. Let's be blunt: gut strings have better range of voice-like timbres than modern metal strings, and this CD demonstrates that fact clearly. Jaap ter Linden on viola da gamba and Lars Ulrik Mortensen on harpsichord/organ provide tight ensemble continuo.

These small vocal works - ranging from a minute and a half to twelve minutes - switch from nuanced simplicity to dynamic intensity. Like many composers of the Renaissance and Baroque, Buxtehude was not a mere craftsman but a fully self-conscious artist, well aware of the sublimity of his music. Perhaps the best example is recorded on this CD, in his sacred concerto "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied", in which he points to violin playing as one of the wonders of God, assigning the solo violinist a fabulously virtuosic passage after the words "denn Er macht Wunder" - for He makes miracles.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL SELECTION SUNG WITH DEVOTION AND HUMBLENESS, July 11, 2007

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V. FH "Victorio Emmanuel, Rč d'Italia" (RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)

That's what I can say about this album sung by the magnificent Emma Kirkby.
This music points out why Germany gave us Bach, Handel, Telemann and so many other minors (but beautiful) composers who came after Schütz and Buxtehude.
Buxtehude's music is sublime. My beloved cantatas here are "Herr, wenn ich nur dich hab" and "O fröhliche Stunde", but the whole selection is well worth the price.
The only flaw, once more, has to do with the label, that doesn't provide us with translations, although make them available online. It's unpardonable, though.
Buy it. It's outstanding. No other thing could result when Emma Kirby sings. Bravo!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unknown Buxtehude, October 28, 2008

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Mr. W. Sellwood "principalsarchive" (UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)

Dietrich buxyehude is known as the forerunner of JS Bach and the North German School of baroque music. Unfortunately, those who know this seldom seem to listen to his music!. This recording gives a admirable insight into the choral music of this nderrated man, whose influence and output are both great and highly worth study and enjoyment.