Buxtehude: Abendmusiken
Artists: Ensemble Masques, Lionel Meunier, Olivier Fortin, Vox Luminis, Dietrich Buxtehude
I’m bringing this record to attention because it’s not only the music of a composer who deeply influenced
Bach but according to an old textbook I have it’s specifically the music of that composer to which he was exposed. Bach, at the time was barely getting by as a professional organist in Arnstadt
but Bach didn’t just like playing music. He also made incredible efforts to hear the works of other instrumentalists and composers. He was so interested in the music of
Dietrich Buxtehude that he walked 225 miles to Lübeck
to hear him play his compositions. Bach lived like a pauper at the time. He stayed there to hear Buxtehude’s daily performances for four months living exclusively on charity and often sleeping without shelter and going hungry.
The music on this recording sometimes sounds like Vivaldi, who was born around forty years later and some of it sounds like it’s barely branching out of the Middle Ages. It’s a great listen and a wonderful effort by the artists that devote so much time and hard work preserving the world’s musical heritage.