Repertoire

BUXTEHUDE: Gott hilf mir, denn das Wasser geht mir bis an die Seele, BuxWV 34; Befiehl dem Engel, dass er komm, BuxWV 10; Jesu, meine Freude, BuxWV 60; Herzlich lieb habe ich dich, o Herr, BuxWV 41; Jesu, meines Lebens Leben, BuxWV 62

Artists

Vox Luminis
Lionel Meunier, conductor

Program

During the latter third of the 17th century, St. Mary’s Church in the city of Lübeck had the best organist in the world: Dieterich Buxtehude. His peers, including some household names today such as Handel and Bach, travelled to this ‘free’ city in northern Germany to admire his skills with the instrument. Buxtehude had taken over from Franz Tunder, who had established some evening concerts outside the liturgy, with organ music and some vocal pieces. The new organist reorganised these evenings and scheduled them for the five Sundays preceding Christmas. He also increased the number of musicians participating in the sessions, wrote new music and even printed books for some of the pieces they performed. Vox Luminis brings one of these concerts to L’Auditori, including a series of cantatas that Buxtehude composed especially for these Abendmusiken. Away from the routine of only writing music for the Sunday liturgy, the organist had a renewed interest in composing, and demonstrated a unique quality and rhetoric.

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