Buxtehude: Complete Organ Music
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Composer: Dietrich BuxtehudePerformer: Walter Kraft
Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 2004-10-26
Music Label: Vox (Classical)
Music reviews of Buxtehude: Complete Organ Music
Music Review: Revelatory
Rating: 5 Stars
Dietrich Buxtehude was but one of a long and distinguished line of Dutch, Danish and German organists/composers beginning with Conrad Paumann in the fifteenth century and ending with the death of J S Bach and the Barok epoch some three hundred years later. In the company of Sweelinck, Bruhns, Muffat, Reinken et al, he was a luminary; but it is as mentor and inspirer of Bach that his place in history has been elevated above that of the others.
Musically, he was very inventive but seemed to have a rather short attention span so that the potential of much of his thematic material remained undeveloped. It was in the hands of Bach (who "borrowed" a surprising amount of Buxtehude's writing - a common enough practice at the time) that the seeds germinated to become the zenith of Barok (and subsequent) organ composition. This set from Vox and Walter Kraft reminds us of just how much Bach and, by extension, ourselves, was/are indebted to Buxtehude.
Sadly, the three organs organs of the Marienkirche, L?beck, two of which pre-dated Buxtehude, were destroyed in 1942. The instrument of the Totentanzkapelle (from 1477) was restored to a 17th century specification in 1937 but this and the chapel were damaged in the fire following an allied bombing raid. However, Kemper u. Sohne were able to restore the instrument to its pre-war condition and it is this organ that is featured on these recordings. It is voiced in a manner with which Buxtehude would have been familiar and is quite well suited to this purpose but it proved mechanically unreliable and was replaced some ten years after these recordings were made. A more suitable instrument would be the church's Gro?e Orgel (also by Kemper) but this was not completed until 1986.
Walter Kraft, organist at the Marienkirche for nearly fifty years, revived the tradition of Abendmusik started by Franz Tunder and continued by his son-in-law, Buxtehude so despite the break in organ lineage, there is a considerable sense of history attached to this set of six CDs transferred from the 1950's LPs. Kraft's interpretations and playing are scholarly and refined, having much in common with his contemporary Helmut Walcha but unlike Walcha who lived to his mid-eighties, Kraft, having survived the vicissitudes of war, perished in an Amsterdam hotel fire in 1977.
The original recordings, which were good, have been digitally enhanced to provide a bright and well-balanced reproduction of these important works and to those familiar with the earlier records, it might seem that some of the more wayward acoustics (seven seconds reverberation!) of this glorious Gothic brick building have been tamed in the process.
I can't think why anyone would not derive a great deal of pleasure from listening to these excellent discs. The musical content, being so seminally influential, in my judgment is a required adjunct to the works of J S Bach.
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