L'Estravagante - Buxtehude: Sonatas, Op.1 (2007)

Dieterich Buxtehude is one of the key figures of the baroque period. Other musicians and composers like the young Johann Sebastian Bach came from all over Europe to listen to and to learn from him, since his virtuosi abilities on the organ and his knowledge of compositions were legendary. When he was quite old Buxtehude published two collections of instrumental chamber music. Apart from a few occasional works, these are the only examples of his art that were printed during his lifetime. Opus 1, containing seven sonatas for violin and viola da gamba with harpsichord continuo, is undated but probably appeared in 1694. Opus 2, with seven more sonatas for the same combination, followed two years later. As with all of Buxtehude's chamber music, the trio-sonatas opus 1, recorded here by the group L'Estravagante and being released simultaneously with opus 2 set by Arts, reveal a combination of brilliant spontaneity and careful construction. Although the most common instrumentation for baroque trio sonatas is two trebles with basso continuo, these pieces call for a treble instrument and a bass instrument as the solo parts, a combination which allows Buxtehude to achieve a slightly different flavour of interaction between the two solo parts. Along with the opus 2 set, the sonatas are organized according to key in such a way that between them they encompass all the major and minor keys of a seven-tone diatonic scale beginning on F, omitting only F minor and B flat minor. The key sequence of Opus 1 is F major, G major, A minor, B flat major, C major, D minor, E minor. Sonata II demonstrates Buxtehude's fascination with repeated notes on the same pitch, and ends with a jaunty set of variations on an Arioso. The bulk of Sonata IV is a series of astonishingly imaginative and delightful variations on a ground bass whose carefree character contrasts strongly with the serious and powerful Sonata III