Buxtehude: VII Suonate Op. 2 - Purcell Quartet (2012)

By the end of his life, the fame of Dietrich Buxtehude as an organist was so great that in 1706 the young J.S. Bach took four weeks’ leave from his employment at Arnstadt and travelled on foot over 200 miles to Lübeck to hear him perform in concert. Ironically, the meteoric rise of the career of Bach himself as a composer meant that, until very recently, Buxtehude was primarily known simply as a forerunner to the great man, when in fact he was a major composer in his own right.

These Trio Sonatas for violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord are remarkable examples of Buxtehude’s beautiful chamber music, and anyone expecting them to follow a set of pre-established procedures will be surprised. Inventive and full of life, each of the sonatas is different from the others, ranging from dance-like pieces and little fugues to variation sets with some dynamic duets between the violin and viola da gamba, and slow, airy pieces too.

The recording complements CHAN0766 (Trio Sonatas, Op. 1) of which Early Music Today wrote: ‘The Purcell Quartet brings its customary virtues to these perceptive period-instrument interpretations: incisiveness, tonal transparency and excellent rapport and blend.’

Through twenty-nine years and nearly fifty recordings of a huge range of repertoire, The Purcell Quartet has established itself as a leader in the area of baroque chamber music, not shrinking away from taking on fully staged productions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Orfeo. The Quartet has toured the world, including the USA, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Japan, Turkey, and all the countries of Europe, and collaborated with the very finest singers, among them Susan Gritton, Nancy Argenta, Catherine Bott, Emma Kirkby, Julia Gooding, Michael Chance, Dominique Visse, Guy de Mey, Mark Padmore, Charles Daniels, Peter Harvey, and Richard Wistreich. The Purcell Quartet has recorded exclusively for Chandos Records since 1987, its discography now numbering more than forty discs.

Composer: Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby, Catherine Mackintosh, Catherine Weiss, Robert Woolley
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet

Reviews: With this disc the Purcell Quartet completes a traversal of the trio sonatas (or “suonate,” to use the title on this disc) of Dietrich Buxtehude for violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord. For unknown reasons, the op. 2 set has received far fewer recordings than has the op. 1, this being only the third in the active catalog. (As for how a quartet plays trios, the answer is that the two violinists take turns; Catherine Mackintosh plays Sonatas Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5, while Catherine Weiss plays Nos. 3, 6, and 7.) For those not familiar with these works, these relatively early essays in the emerging sonata genre do not yet follow the standard three- and four-movement patterns of the sonata da camera and sonata da chiesa of the high Baroque. Instead, within a compass of about 10 minutes, there are anywhere from five to 14 distinct sections within one sonata, though they generally flow seamlessly into one another and so each sonata is given only one track on the disc. Despite the use of abstract tempo indications— Grave, Lento, Allegro, Vivace, etc.—for most of these sections, they are in fact dance movements and airs of various types from the period, and correspondingly lively and light in manner and style.


The op. 1 set was reviewed in Fanfare 33:5 by Lynn René Bayley. In that review she termed the ensemble’s performances “interesting but slightly flawed.” While conceding it to be a “highly musical, serious, and thoughtful group of musicians” who “play with humor, energy, and a delightful rhythmic lilt” in rapid passages, in her view its members “do not play with the slightly irregular beat that is the very core of Buxtehude’s music.” She continued, “If you want to know what I mean, just start playing track 1 and listen. The slow introduction to the first sonata, played strictly without vibrato, sounds like amateur players scraping wire strings. I can live without this kind of sound, and further, I defy anyone who is musically sensitive (as opposed to musicologically biased) to hear this kind of sound as anything but edgy and unpleasant.”


Well then, with some reluctance, defy I shall. There has been some rather bloody ink spilled in these pages over likes and dislikes in the qualities and use of period instruments, which I do not propose to rehash; while I happen to prefer period-string instruments with a more silken rather than astringent tone, or harpsichord to piano for Bach, I can enjoy any approach that is genuinely musical and empathic with the music in question. I also trust that I am musically sensitive; certainly I am not musicologically biased. In reviewing the present disc, I can find absolutely nothing “edgy and unpleasant” about the playing of the Purcell Quartet. Does the Mortensen / ter Linden / Holloway trio on the competing Naxos cycle have a sweeter sound (emphasized by a significantly more resonant recorded acoustic)? Yes—and as a matter of taste I might actually join Bayley in preferring them, if I had to live with just one version of these works (the Naxos budget price helps as well). However, the Purcell players are exceptionally accomplished performers whose straighter, vibratoless tone is pure, appealing, and not the slightest bit harsh, and a comparison of them to “amateur players scraping wire strings” is simply absurd.


As for “the slightly irregular beat that is the very core of Buxtehude’s music” that the Purcell allegedly fails to observe, I confess that I do not know what Bayley means by this. On the contrary, while the ensemble’s playing maintains a steady pulse (as it should), it shows a subtle flexibility in tempi and phrasing at any number of points in various movements. There is no metronomic stiffness, and the slow movements are allowed to unfold and breathe in a suitably gentle manner. In sum, these are first-class performances of first-class repertoire, and highly recommended; whether you buy this disc or the competing Naxos release, be sure to add these works to your collection of Baroque instrumental repertoire.

Tracklisting:

1. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in G minor, Op. 2 no 3/BuxWV 261 by Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby (Viola Da Gamba), Catherine Mackintosh (Violin), Catherine Weiss (Violin),
Robert Woolley (Harpsichord)
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1696; Lübeck, Germany

2. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in F major, Op. 2 no 7/BuxWV 265 by Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby (Viola Da Gamba), Catherine Mackintosh (Violin), Catherine Weiss (Violin),
Robert Woolley (Harpsichord)
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1696; Lübeck, Germany

3. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in E major, Op. 2 no 6/BuxWV 264 by Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby (Viola Da Gamba), Catherine Mackintosh (Violin), Catherine Weiss (Violin),
Robert Woolley (Harpsichord)
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1696; Lübeck, Germany

4. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in D major, Op. 2 no 2/BuxWV 260 by Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby (Viola Da Gamba), Catherine Mackintosh (Violin), Catherine Weiss (Violin),
Robert Woolley (Harpsichord)
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1696; Lübeck, Germany

5. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in C minor, Op 2 no 4/BuxWV 262 by Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby (Viola Da Gamba), Catherine Mackintosh (Violin), Catherine Weiss (Violin),
Robert Woolley (Harpsichord)
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1696; Lübeck, Germany

6. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in B flat major, Op. 2 no 1/BuxWV 259 by Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby (Viola Da Gamba), Catherine Mackintosh (Violin), Catherine Weiss (Violin),
Robert Woolley (Harpsichord)
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1696; Germany

7. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in A major, Op. 2 no 5/BuxWV 263 by Dietrich Buxtehude
Performer: Richard Boothby (Viola Da Gamba), Catherine Mackintosh (Violin), Catherine Weiss (Violin),
Robert Woolley (Harpsichord)
Orchestra/Ensemble: Purcell Quartet
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1696; Lübeck, Germany



Thanks to the original releaser