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Complete Organ Works: Schnitger Organ 3

Goteborg Baroque Arts Ensemble (Artist), Hans Davidsson (Artist, Performer), Dietrich Buxtehude (Composer), Format: Audio CD
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Audio CD, August 11, 2009
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Track Listings

Disc: 1

1 Prelude in E minor, Buxwv 143
2 Gott Der Vater Wohn Uns Bei, Buxwv 190
3 Kommt Her Zu Mir, Spricht Gottes Sohn, Buxwv 201
4 Canzona in G minor, Buxwv 173
5 Lobt Gott, Ihr Christen, Allzugleich, Buxwv 202
6 Erhalt Uns, Herr, Bei Deinem Wort, Buxwv 185
7 Prelude in G Major, Buxwv 162
8 Jesus Christus, Unser Heiland, Buxwv 198
9 Nun Lob, Mein Seel, Den Herren, Buxwv 215
10 Herr Jesu Christ, Ich Weiss Gar Wohl, Buxwv 193
11 Von Gott Will Ich Nicht Lassen, Buxwv 221
12 Von Gott Will Ich Nicht Lassen, Buxwv 220
13 Variation 1
14 Variation 2
15 Variation 3
16 Variation 4
17 Variation 5
18 Variation 6
19 Variation 7
20 Variation 8
21 Mensch, Willst Du Leben Seliglich, Buxwv 206
22 Wir Danken Dir, Herr Jesu Christ, Buxwv 224
23 War Gott Nicht Mit Uns Diese Zeit, Buxwv 222
24 Canzonetta in a Minor, Buxwv 225
25 Versus 1
26 Versus 2
27 Versus 3
28 Nun Lob, Mein Seel, Den Herren, Buxwv 214

Disc: 2

1 Prelude and Fugue in F Major, Buxwv 145
2 Fugue in B Flat Major, Buxwv 176
3 In Dulci Jubilo, Buxwv 197
4 Der Tag Der Ist So Freudenreich, Buxwv 182
5 Toccata in F Major, Buxwv 156
6 Puer Natus in Bethlehem, Buxwv 217
7 Prelude in a Major, Buxwv 151
8 Toccata in G Major, Buxwv 165
9 Canzona in G Major, Buxwv 170
10 Magnificat Primi Toni, Buxwv 204
11 Versus 1
12 Versus 2
13 Magnificat Primi Toni, Buxwv 203

Disc: 3

1 Prelude and Fugue in F Sharp minor, Buxwv 146
2 Canzonetta in D minor, Buxwv 168
3 Ich Dank Dir Schon Durch Deinen Sohn, Buxwv 195
4 Fried- Und Freudenreiche Hinfahrt, Buxwv 76: I. Mit Fried Und Freud
5 Ich Dank Dir, Lieber Herre, Buxwv 194
6 Prelude and Fugue in F Sharp minor, Buxwv 146
7 Canzona in E minor, Buxwv 169
8 Fried- Und Freudenreiche Hinfahrt, Buxwv 76: II. Klag-Lied
9 Nun Freut Euch, Liebe Christen G'mein, Buxwv 210

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Hans Davidsson plays the groundbreaking repertoire that was known to Bach and his circle, which may have influenced his musical compositions and performance. The organ in this recording is a reconstruction of the façade Arp Schnitger built in the Lübeck Cathedral, completed in 1699. It was this original Lübeck organ that became the most substantial result of Buxtehude's visit to Hamburg.

Review

"An absolute must to buy." -- The Organ

"An outstanding recording from every point of view. Bravo!" -- American Record Guide

Product details

  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.01 x 5.64 x 4.92 inches; 6.4 ounces
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Loft Recordings
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ 0001094
  • Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2009
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ June 20, 2009
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Loft Recordings
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002DYKWAY
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 3
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Richard A. Ayers
    4.0 out of 5 stars Not a fan of Mean-Tone
    Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    The recordings of the new Arp Schnitger style organ in Goteborg are very well produced, recorded and played by Hans Davidsson; however, to my ear I hear some distinct dissonance in the music played on these discs.

    I know this is highly unlikely, but I would like to hear some of the Buxtehude and also some Bach played on this organ retuned to equal temperament.

    As a comparison I refer to Michael Murray's "The Young Bach" music played on the Gabriel Kney organ at St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. This baroque organ, a later and different regional style organ than the Schnitger is definitely a masterpiece and does not produce off sounding notes to my ear.

    I guess the effort was to faithfully reconstruct an instrument that reflects the art of Schnitger's organ building skills. It does accomplish that purpose, but somehow the perfect thirds, etc. do not offset the overall effect of the organ's tonal balance. I believe that Bach made the case for equal temperament.
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  • Stephen Midgley
    4.0 out of 5 stars A more problematic final Buxtehude volume from Hans Davidsson
    Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2018
    This is the third and final volume in Hans Davidsson’s complete Buxtehude series, this time consisting of three CDs to supplement the first two twin-disc sets. Once again Davidsson plays on the magnificent modern reconstruction of a North German baroque-style organ in the Örgryte New Church in Göteborg, Sweden, completed in the year 2000. The same comments about some of the other Buxtehude sets available apply as for the first volume. Those comments are set out in more detail in my review of Davidsson’s first volume, so I won’t repeat them here except to say that there are several fine sets available and that choosing the best of these is a difficult task – but that Davidsson’s series is very much in contention.

    Once again, the set boasts the very great assets of Davidsson’s style, energy and technical mastery, an excellent choice and varied sequence of works, and of course the splendour of the instrument itself. This final volume is entitled ‘Dietrich Buxtehude and the Schnitger Organ’, in a reference to Buxtehude’s close association with the instruments of that master builder and to the fact that the design of the Göteborg instrument was based on surviving examples of Arp Schnitger’s work.

    As in his first two volumes, Hans Davidsson’s playing is quite outstanding, with characterful, fluent phrasing and dynamics, style thoughtful or spontaneous as appropriate, and brilliant technique. He makes full use of the exceptional capabilities of the Göteborg instrument to render Buxtehude’s powerful, energetic, majestic preludes and toccatas, and colourful chorale variations. The works are well organised to provide varied programmes of toccatas, chorales, ciaconas, preludes etc., with an ample and well-judged variety of formats on each of the two discs. Each of the three discs is given a title, respectively ‘Organ Chorales’, ‘Christmas’ and finally ‘Learned Counterpoint and Chorale Fantasia’. In reality, however, the choice of works is equally varied within each disc to include examples of all the formats such as prelude, toccata, canzona, chorale etc. The sequence of four Magnificat settings at the end of the second CD is especially fine.

    My main worry over this set comes with the treatment of the chorale fantasias on the third and final disc. Three of these chorale-based works are punctuated by a solo singer (soprano or bass) introducing each line of the chorale melody, followed by the organ variation itself. In the final work on the CD, the extended cycle ‘Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein’, each of Buxtehude’s numerous organ variations is introduced by the plain chorale line sung by solo soprano. This approach is not used for any of the other chorale works in this complete set, and indeed I cannot imagine the works having been performed in this manner in Buxtehude’s time. I suppose there is some argument for familiarising today’s listeners with the Lutheran hymn melodies on which the organ works are based – but, quite frankly, most of us who listen to works such as the Bach cantatas or German baroque organ music are already familiar with the chorales and won’t need additional support of this kind. For me, the approach ruins the continuity of Buxtehude’s finely-wrought sequences of chorale variations, and therefore constitutes a serious distraction for the listener.

    There is no mention of all this in the booklet notes - which are, as in the first two volumes, fairly generalised. For more details on the music, we are referred to Gothic Catalog’s website for fuller commentaries. However, unlike Volumes 1 and 2, at the time of writing there are no commentaries to be found on the website for the music of this third volume, even though it was issued in 2009.

    To sum up, then, this is a slightly disappointing conclusion to Hans Davidsson’s complete Buxtehude series. The fact remains that the series boasts the very great assets of Davidsson’s outstanding performances, the use of the same magnificent Göteborg organ throughout the series, and the superb recorded sound. Drawbacks include the need to find (and pay for) the three volumes separately; the nuisance factor of having to find information on the label’s website; the use of a modern instrument, which may not be the preference of some listeners; and the problematic treatment of the chorales on the final disc as outlined above.

    I would therefore hesitate to recommend this complete set in preference to others. It is certainly well worth considering but, as things stand at the time of writing, among the sets I’m familiar with I have a slight preference for that of Bine Bryndorf (for which I’ve explained the reasons in a review of that set). In fact, if I had to make a first choice among complete Buxtehude recordings it would probably be Bryndorf or else the five-disc series by Helga Schauerte, the latter not well-known here but readily available from European mail-order sources. I should add the health warning that, so far, I have only heard parts of the Schauerte set. So, until I’ve listened to the latter properly, I have to say that the first two volumes by Hans Davidsson and the complete set from Bine Bryndorf are the ones I’ve appreciated the most.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Stephen Midgley
    4.0 out of 5 stars A more problematic final volume from Hans Davidsson
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This is the third and final volume in Hans Davidsson’s complete Buxtehude series, this time consisting of three CDs to supplement the first two twin-disc sets. Once again Davidsson plays on the magnificent modern reconstruction of a North German baroque-style organ in the Örgryte New Church in Göteborg, Sweden, completed in the year 2000. The same comments about some of the other Buxtehude sets available apply as for the first volume. Those comments are set out in more detail in my review of Davidsson’s first volume, so I won’t repeat them here except to say that there are several fine sets available and that choosing the best of these is a difficult task – but that Davidsson’s series is very much in contention.

    Once again, the set boasts the very great assets of Davidsson’s style, energy and technical mastery, an excellent choice and varied sequence of works, and of course the splendour of the instrument itself. This final volume is entitled ‘Dietrich Buxtehude and the Schnitger Organ’, in a reference to Buxtehude’s close association with the instruments of that master builder and to the fact that the design of the Göteborg instrument was based on surviving examples of Arp Schnitger’s work.

    As in his first two volumes, Hans Davidsson’s playing is quite outstanding, with characterful, fluent phrasing and dynamics, style thoughtful or spontaneous as appropriate, and brilliant technique. He makes full use of the exceptional capabilities of the Göteborg instrument to render Buxtehude’s powerful, energetic, majestic preludes and toccatas, and colourful chorale variations. The works are well organised to provide varied programmes of toccatas, chorales, ciaconas, preludes etc., with an ample and well-judged variety of formats on each of the two discs. Each of the three discs is given a title, respectively ‘Organ Chorales’, ‘Christmas’ and finally ‘Learned Counterpoint and Chorale Fantasia’. In reality, however, the choice of works is equally varied within each disc to include examples of all the formats such as prelude, toccata, canzona, chorale etc. The sequence of four Magnificat settings at the end of the second CD is especially fine.

    My main worry over this set comes with the treatment of the chorale fantasias on the third and final disc. Three of these chorale-based works are punctuated by a solo singer (soprano or bass) introducing each line of the chorale melody, followed by the organ variation itself. In the final work on the CD, the extended cycle ‘Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein’, each of Buxtehude’s numerous organ variations is introduced by the plain chorale line sung by solo soprano. This approach is not used for any of the other chorale works in this complete set, and indeed I cannot imagine the works having been performed in this manner in Buxtehude’s time. I suppose there is some argument for familiarising today’s listeners with the Lutheran hymn melodies on which the organ works are based – but, quite frankly, most of us who listen to works such as the Bach cantatas or German baroque organ music are already familiar with the chorales and won’t need additional support of this kind. For me, the approach ruins the continuity of Buxtehude’s finely-wrought sequences of chorale variations, and therefore constitutes a serious distraction for the listener.

    There is no mention of all this in the booklet notes - which are, as in the first two volumes, fairly generalised. For more details on the music, we are referred to Gothic Catalog’s website for fuller commentaries. However, unlike Volumes 1 and 2, at the time of writing there are no commentaries to be found on the website for the music of this third volume, even though it was issued in 2009.

    To sum up, then, this is a slightly disappointing conclusion to Hans Davidsson’s complete Buxtehude series. The fact remains that the series boasts the very great assets of Davidsson’s outstanding performances, the use of the same magnificent Göteborg organ throughout the series, and the superb recorded sound. Drawbacks include the need to find (and pay for) the three volumes separately; the nuisance factor of having to find information on the label’s website; the use of a modern instrument, which may not be the preference of some listeners; and the problematic treatment of the chorales on the final disc as outlined above.

    I would therefore hesitate to recommend this complete set in preference to others. It is certainly well worth considering but, as things stand at the time of writing, among the sets I’m familiar with I have a slight preference for that of Bine Bryndorf (for which I’ve explained the reasons in a review of that set). In fact, if I had to make a first choice among complete Buxtehude recordings it would probably be Bryndorf or else the five-disc series by Helga Schauerte, the latter not well-known here but readily available from European mail-order sources. I should add the health warning that, so far, I have only heard parts of the Schauerte set. So, until I’ve listened to the latter properly, I have to say that the first two volumes by Hans Davidsson and the complete set from Bine Bryndorf are the ones I’ve appreciated the most.
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  • Philip Goddard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding - A revelatory experience!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This review is actually for all three volumes of this Buxtehude Complete Organ Works set with Hans Davidsson at a really wonderful sounding Arp Schnittger organ.

    Let me say straightaway that this is not only an outstanding issue, but is more 'definitive' than any other version, however well realized, that is in equal temperament or anything like it. Poor old Buxtehude would have been not only turning but also wailing and gnashing in his grave if he could hear his music being played on modern, equal temperament instruments!

    Before I discovered this set I already had on my shopping list a very highly rated and enthusiastically reviewed CD set I'd found on Amazon, with the general idea that it was time I got to know Buxtehude's organ music because it would be 'good for me'! :-) Basically what little bits of it I'd heard had seemed to be of mostly academic interest and little more than something reasonable to display a really nice sounding organ!

    It was only by chance that, during my actually searching on the Priory Records website for something completely different, that I came across a feature there about Buxtehude and the mean-tone organ. The moment I saw mention of 'mean-tone' I 'smelled blood', and suddenly my initial quest there seemed not so big a deal and I read their feature, which was actually explaining the importance of this particular Buxtehude CD set. - And why did I get so excited? - Because I already well understood that the equal temperament tuning of modern instruments is an abomination, which makes all our music have a certain lacklustre dullness about it, which nobody would be aware of until they start listening to and attuning themselves to music performances that are in non-equal temperaments. I then dropped the other set from my shopping list and enthusiastically purchased all three volumes of this set - it being very confusing trying to find the different volumes on Amazon because they each have a different title and so it isn't immediately apparent that they are each actually volumes of one unwritten overall title.

    I expected great things of these recordings, but, in short, what I got was even greater. Not only was the organ a superb one for the purpose even before one considers the tuning / temperament aspect (it's large enough even to have a 32-foot rank, yet has the sort of clarity of sound and ambient acoustic that is optimal for Buxtehude or Bach), but the mean-tone temperament made the music sound immensely vivid and colourful, with masses of expressive nuances that are completely lost with notionally the same music being played on an equal temperament instrument. I never would have believed that Buxtehude's music would actually bring tears to my eyes, but it did here. There's no way really that I can convey to you in words the great essence in this music that is brought out with the tuning system that was apparently the predominant one that Buxtehude himself would have been working with, which is lost once you transfer the notes to an equal temperament system, where they sound more like an academic exercise.

    Perhaps I can give just a hint of what I'm on about by pointing to the simple truth of all music of any substance depending on organised transitions between consonance and dissonance or at least tension and then that releasing back into consonance. When you are outside the equal temperament stranglehold, not all your semitones are same-size steps - which means in practice that some intervals that you are used to sounding the same in all circumstances are actually slightly larger or smaller in different situations, and thus within your music you find a whole lot of inner tensions and clashes on the one hand and inner resolutions into purer consonances than you'd *ever* hear in equal temperament (where everything except for the octave is slightly out of tune in order to create that artificial equal division of the full-octave scale). An ascending or descending 'chromatic' scale (moving in semitone steps), which generally sounds to me dull and lacking in colour (and therefore 'chromatic' would be a misnomer) in equal temperament is a remarkably colourful and expressive feature in music played in mean-tone temperament.

    I also loved Hans Davidsson's playing. He had clearly properly attuned himself to this wonderful mean-tone sound and so helped bring out the multitude of expressive nuance that is inherent in the music in its proper, native tuning environment. Also he got greatly in my good books by being sensibly sparing in his use of plenum registrations, so that you could hear a wide variety of organ colour, lots of delicacy in which the (to us) strange tuning shimmers and shines like multidimensional stained glass windows, each telling a different story. Bach organ music is regularly butchered by being played with gross overuse of plenum registrations. They may sound grand and uplifting, but they're fatiguing to the ears and they obscure contrapuntal detail.

    Please let us hear more and more music played with PROPER tuning systems - which equal temperament is not, because in equal temperament nothing apart from the octave is fully in tune! Go, purchase all three volumes of this mega-work for a revelatory (or do I mean revelationary?) experience!
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