"Ein Starken Music..." : 6 Cantatas
|
Bux WV 78 Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott Bux WV 62 Jesu, meines Lebens Leben Bux WV 76 Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin Bux WV 31 F黨rwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit Bux WV 41 Herzzlich lieb ich dic, o Herr Bux WV 15 Der Herr ist mit mir
Clarion McFadden soprano |
Collegium Vocale
Orchestra Anima Eterna and The Royal Consort
conducted by Jos van Immerseel
performing on period instruments
Includes libretto in German only.
CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS 7895-I
[65:30] full-price
by Chia Han-Leon
It's not even certain whether he was Danish or German. The only contemporary clue relating to this is an obituary notice stating that "he recognized Denmark as his native country, whence he came to our region; he lived about 70 years." His name is also the name of a town in southwest Hamburg. He was as famous and phenomenally skilled an organist as Bach was to be. So great in fact, the famous anecdote relating to the young Bach walking - yes, walking - something like 280 miles to see and hear a certain master organist perform on the pipes refers to none other than Dietrich Buxtehude. 747s spoil all the fun.
Information based on The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (ed. Sadie, 1980).
Nowadays (and most of the year 2000, I assure you), the term cantata is almost synonymous with those by Bach. But as mentioned previously among the Inkpot pages, the form has had a long history.
Many of us are more likely to be more familiar with Bach's cantatas. Buxtehude's is... related, but different. What comes across immediately is the elegant, subtle sense of grace in the music. How do I describe this?
If I were the conductor of this music, I would find myself unable to resist swaying my body and arms to the curving, lightly dancing lines.
There are a number of really solid, eye-opening gems on this album. The six cantatas are each tracked on one track, which I find a little inconvenient since the works are divisible into parts. And yet, the lack of division does present the cantatas as subtly and skillfully unified works - a view well-presented by the Dutch performance here.
Consider the 7-minute cantata Jesu, meine Lebens Leben. In one Sinfonia and an Aria, the work is a seamless hypnotic painting, with its floating, andante-paced pulsing. The choral interchanges are carefully and pleasingly sculpted by Immerseel, the Collegium Vocale responding with solemnly serene tone. The subtle transition into the final Amen - and what a beautiful setting it is! - is handled with utmost nobility and beauty of expression by the performers. This is truly heavenly. Equally so is the beginning of the final verse in the cantata Herzlich lieb ich dich, o Herr, which begins with a tranquil choral breeze on the word "ruhn", floating magically above a pianissimo string ostinato. Gorgeous, I tell you.
The words Jesu, meine Lebens Leben of undulate above the slowly throbbing bass continuo, complemented by the urgent musings of the strings above an unobstrusive trombone. The Anima Eterna Orchestra provide a most mesmerising instrumental presence throughout. The ending sequence on "Amen" is almost deliriously gorgeous, as the singers drift like an array of angel voices in some heavenly dance floor.
Left: Portrait believed to be of Buxtehude.
Although there are obvious points in this music where Bach must have learnt lessons from, it is clear that Buxtehude belonged to a rather different world. Whereas Bach is High Baroque, Buxtehude's cantatas, the ones here at least, create a strong impression that it is in transition between the Renaissance and Baroque.
Buxtehude's role can be loosely said to be part of the development and transition of the form from the Early Baroque (with considerable Renaissance "tone") into the core Baroque, hence an important contributor to the formation of the Protestant cantata. Although great architectural intelligence - hallmark of the Baroque - has gone into this music, it retains a more flexible, curving feel than Bach's cantatas, in general. Whereas one might say that quite a bit of Bach's cantatas are more direct in utterance and melody, Buxtehude's has a more subtle, even misty, sinuous feel.
The Renaissance tone stems from the Monteverdian (maybe I should say Italic to include the French) qualities of lilting grace and dramatic... exploration. It's hard to explain, there is something very daring about it, as attested to by Buxtehude's disapproving contemporaries. And yet, it is this misty unexplained quality that I find so attractive. The string writing and textures are often reminiscent of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), the invention matches the fertility of the Italians and the dancing quality has more than a whiff of the French Baroque. The solo songs of Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin ring bells of Italian madrigals and the French Renaissance composers such as - this is clearest in the cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, which features a solo countertenor and bass.And yet above all, this is original Buxtehude.
The instrumentation, as "normal" as it sounds, contains many wonders. It includes the distinct Renaissance sound of viols in the form of The Royal Consort, weaving their way around the solemn voices in Mit Fried.
I am not often impressed by the scoring for "religious" trombones in Baroque cantatas, as important as they are in terms of symbolism and tone colour. But here, Buxtehude's style really catches one's ear. The subtle entry of the instrument halfway through Jesu, meines Lebens Leben is a masterstroke, both melding into and strengthening the music.
The disc ends with Der Herr ist mit mir, which itself ends with a magnificent 2-minute chaconne on "alleluia", the bass which is repeated 19 times on the string bass with bassoon support. Truly, when I first heard this, I was stunned with wonder at the sheer inspiration of the composer, and heartbroken that so much of his music remains lost. The one word is treated with such a myriad of expressive variation, and yet from beginning to end, it is one great unbroken sequence of nobly restrained celebration. The choral voices dance faintly to the music, while orchestra play with totally unfazed elegance and a solid sense of purpose around the choral "alleluia"s.
Never have I ever heard such beautiful treatment of single syllable ("a-a-a-a..."), let alone a whole word; the word "alleluia" being such a melodically inspirational sound. Immerseel tops the performance with his natural reign over the shifting tempo, sculpting the music with very human sense of worship and excitement. These performances and the cantatas themselves are truly microcosmic splendours, possessing spontaneous dramatic quality within gracefully restrained expressive range. As Immerseel puts it, "[t]his is the essential Buxtehude: great expressive power with the simplest of means, comprehensible for every listener."
DIETRICH BUXTEHUDE ("BOOKS-ter-hoo-der") brings to mind two things: he was one of the most important immediate predecessors of Bach; and the vast majority of his music is lost.
The more I listen to this music, the more details I hear and each time, layer after layer, it just gets more divine as the musicians dance this light-footed aural choreography of shifting light. It brings to mind immediately the painting of dancing angels by...
In Singapore, Channel discs can be purchased (or ordered) from Borders (Wheelock Place) and HMV (The Heeren).
Chia Han-Leon receives his fuse on the 18th and lights his bombs thereafter.
Back to the Classical Index!... or read more Baroque reviews from the Inkvault Archives!
536: 27.6.1999 〤hia Han-Leon
 |
Explore the Flying Inkpot
| Concert Reviews |
Bit deadish: