Dieterich Buxtehude - Suite in C major, BuxWV227, Sarabande - Gregory Hamilton, Harpsichord

Dieterich Buxtehude Sarabande in C Major -
Gregory Hamilton, Harpsichord
Dieterich Buxtehude Danish: Diderich, c. 1637/39 - 9 May 1707) was a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the organ repertoire canon and are frequently performed at recitals and in the Liturgy. He composed in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. Today, Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers in Germany of the mid-Baroque.
Besides the well known organ works, the works for harpsichord continue Buxtehude’s gift for strong themes with creative imagination. They are often clearly apart from his organ style, employing French lute style brisé, and a free voice texture, rather than a strict contrapuntal voicing. There are 19 surviving harpsichord suites and several variation sets. The German composer and theorist Johann Mattheson mentions a tantalizing cycle of suites based on the Planets, sadly these are lost.
The several sets of arias with variations are much more developed than the organ chorale variations. BuxWV 250 La Capricciosa may have inspired Bach's Goldberg Variations BWV 988: both have 32 variations (including the two arias of the Goldberg Variations); there are a number of similarities in the structure of individual movements; both include variations in forms of various dances; both are in G major; and Bach was familiar with Buxtehude's work and admired him. In 1705, J.S. Bach, then a young man of twenty, walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a distance of more than 400 kilometres (250 mi), and stayed nearly three months to hear the Abendmusik, meet the pre-eminent Lübeck organist, hear him play, and, as Bach explained, "to comprehend one thing and another about his art". Bach stayed so long that he was almost dismissed when he returned late to his post.
Art by Peter Binoit.
Harpsichord: Burton 1985; rebuilt by Gregory Hamilton
www.gregoryhamilton.org

[@WhitneyMaslak]

Very nice playing!

[@RudiVanPoele]

Hello Sir, this is such a good version, and very rare to find in this sublieme recording quality! Congratulations and many thanks for posting.