Search - Buxtehude, Mitzi Meyerson :: Buxtehude: Suites and Variations for Harpsichord

Attractive issue of relatively rare keyboard works

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 04/29/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637 - 1707): Suites and Variations for Harpsichord. 1. La Capricciosa - partite diverse sopra una aria d'inventione (BuxWV250); 2. Suite VII in D minor (BuxWV234); 3. Suite XIX in A major (BuxWV243); 4. Suite XI in E minor (BuxWV236); 5. Suite V in C major (BuxWV230). Performed by Mitzi Meyerson on a harpsichord made in 1983 by Mark Stevenson, Cambridge, and based on a historical instrument by Dulcken. Unequal temperaments by Bendeler (1688) and Werckmeister (1698). Published 1986 as ASV Gaudeamus 102. Total playing time: 53'17".



2007 is the tercentenary of Buxtehude's death, and there is currently a spate of recordings coming on the market to celebrate this. However, it is not necessary to wait for new stuff as there are plenty of perfectly good Buxtehude recordings out there already. One of these is Mitzi Meyerson's solo debut on the English ASV label with a selection of Buxtehude's harpsichord suites. Buxtehude has always been remembered for his organ works (it is well-known that Johann Sebastian Bach travelled to Luebeck to hear him play), but over the last few decades his vocal, chamber and keyboard works have been rediscovered and made accessible to the public. As far as Buxtehude's keyboard music is concerned, he never actually published any of it himself, and what we have today comes from a manuscript handed down from generation to generation within a family in Roskilde in Denmark, not far from the place where Buxtehude was employed as an organist before he moved to Luebeck. Mitzi Meyerson's recording is very attractive and has received not inconsiderable praise from early music critics. The sound of her harpsichord is light and not over-metallic, and her playing is always tasteful as well as skillful. The first piece on the disc, La Capricciosa, is a series of variations and could be seen as exemplary for Bach's later Goldberg Variations (where the same tune is quoted in the "Quodlibet"). The other suites consist of the usual series of French dances: Allemande - Courante- Sarabande - Gigue (Suite VII has two Sarabandes, but no Gigue).



Perhaps it is a pity that there is little or no slow, meditative music here, something for which the harpsichord can be ideal. But obviously, that is not what Buxtehude wrote. The engineering is of a good average standard, but I was a little disappointed that there are only five tracks on the CD; it would have been nice to have been able to follow the individual variations or dances within the pieces (for those who have a CD player with the necessary display, there are index numbers for the individual movements of the Suites, but not for the Variations. The folded card that ASV provide has informative notes by Mitzi Meyerson's colleague Sarah Cunningham, but only in English. There is no indication of where the recording was made.



A similar recording has also been made by Glen Wilson for Naxos, and a new recording of Buxtehude's harpsichord works by Ton Koopman has just been announced by the Dutch label Challenge Classics."