During the latter third of the 17th century, St. Mary’s Church in the city of Lübeck had, as its organist, the best in the world: Dietrich Buxtehude. His peers, Handel and Bach, traveled to this ‘free’ city in northern Germany to admire Buxtehude’s skills with the instrument. Buxtehude had succeeded Franz Tunder, who had established some evening concerts outside the liturgy, with organ music and some vocal pieces. As new organist, Buxtehude reorganized these evenings, scheduling 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. On tonight’s monographic edition of Baroque&Before, Vox Luminis, under the direction of Lionel Meunier, presents a series of cantatas that Buxtehude composed especially for these Abendmusiken.
Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert December 1, 2019, in Pau Casals Hall in Barcelona’s LAuditori, as part of its regular presentations of Early Music. Thanks to our association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’ll be able to present tonight’s concert as a stream for 30 days following the broadcast. A blue “Listen” button will appear when the stream is accessible.
