La Rêveuse - Buxtehude: Sonatas / Reinken: Hortus Musicus (2008) CD-Rip

This is a genuinely heart warming recital of chamber music from the latter part of the 17th century by the north German masters Johann Adam Reinken and Dietrich Buxtehude, both among the influences on the young J.S. Bach. The two were great friends and shared compositional tastes. Melody is not the issue here, neither is the extroverted passion of Italian composers of the period. This is more the animated conversation of friends sitting around the fire discussing various topics after a good meal. Musically we have a limited range of little motifs taken on interesting harmonic journeys. Reinken’s works are trio sonatas for violin and viola da gamba with continuo, while Buxthude’s are quartet sonatas with an extra violin. Both composers, however, incorporate solo sections for violin or viola da gamba. The sonatas are in a sequence of short movements, Reinken’s being the more highly organised. His are from the published collection Hortus Musicus (Musical Garden), six sonatas following the same pattern and suggestive of organised flower beds in a formal garden. There is a short slow introduction, often incorporating the same little repeated motif over a moving bass and suggesting, to me at least, walking from plot to plot in a way that recalls Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This is followed by a fugue and a passage (sometimes slow, sometimes slow - fast) for solo violin that is repeated for solo viola da gamba with different continuo. This is really beautiful music. There follows a standard Baroque dance suite, allemande - courante - sarabande - gigue, on the variation principle, i.e., sharing initial motifs and other music. Two of the finest sonatas from the collection are included here. Buxtehude’s sonatas are from unpublished manuscripts but they are none the less for that. He comes across as a more cheerful character, a good foil to the seemingly serious Reinken. La Reveuse are right inside this music with warm, intimate and gentle performances that are nicely recorded; only the harpsichord seems oddly balanced to me, though this is a minor quibble. If you like this kind of thing, you could easily sit through the whole CD in one go - Buxtehude’s ciacona for two chamber organs makes an attractive interlude. Light the fire, pour a glass of whatever you fancy and let yourself be carried away to olden Germany!