With this exemplary set, Brilliant Classics has formed a vivid picture of the composer Dietrich Buxtehude across the most important sectors of his output, drawing on a rich back catalogue crowned with new recordings. More than half of the set is devoted to the ambitious, monumental recording cycle of the complete keyboard music on 10 CDs undertaken by organist-harpsichordist and label stalwart Simone Stella in 2010-11. This pride of place for the solo keyboard is natural considering Buxtehude's own prodigious gifts as a performer on the instruments - and it is this repertoire, through it's ease of dissemination, that exerted his compositional influence most widely on the generations to come, which included the great J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, born almost 50 years later. But his works in vocal idioms were equally ground-breaking. For this, Brilliant have licensed important sets from 1996 and 2000 of cantatas for small and larger forces originally issued on the Dacapo label, of Buxtehude's native Denmark, featuring the great Emma Kirkby and Danish bass Johan Reuter, as well as a 2002 Canadian recording of cantatas for one, two and three soloists from Naxos. Brilliant Classics supplement these treasures with a vocal gem in their own catalogue: Buxtehude's great cycle of seven cantatas, Membra Jesu nostri, in a 2021 recording by Groningen's Luthers Bach Ensemble. Finally, the chamber music is offered in a new release from Amsterdam-based ensemble Fantasticus, recorded in 2023 and comprising the Trio Sonatas Opp. 1 & 2, with an addendum of sonatas in manuscript, on 3 CDs. Other information: - Recordings date from 1996-2023 - 32-page booklet in English contains extensive liner notes by Simone Stella (keyboard music), Tymen Jan Bronda (Membra Jesu nostri), Jon Baxendale (chamber music), Kerala Snyder (vocal music) and Kevin Mallon (sacred cantatas) - Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) was a Danish-German composer and organist. He is recognized for bridging Renaissance and Baroque musical traditions, influencing composers such as J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel. - Born in either Helsingborg, Sweden, or Helsingor, Denmark (the exact location remains uncertain), Buxtehude spent much of his career in Lubeck, Germany, where he served as organist at the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) from 1668 until his death. - As a composer, Buxtehude is recognized for his organ works, including preludes, fugues, and chorale variations. His music blends intricate counterpoint with an expressive, almost improvisational character, making him one of the most significant figures in early Baroque music. His Abendmusiken concerts, held in Lubeck, became famous throughout Europe, attracting musicians from far and wide, including a young Johann Sebastian Bach, who famously walked over 250 miles to study with him. - Buxtehude composed a wide variety of vocal and instrumental works, including cantatas, sonatas, and oratorios. His sacred music, marked by it's spiritual depth and complex textures, remains a significant part of the Baroque choral repertoire. - This comprehensive collection contains the complete organ music, harpsichord music, chamber music, and a variety of choral works, among which the famous and moving "Membra Jesu Nostri". - Excellent performances by keyboard player Simone Stella, Peter-Jan Belder and his ensemble, the Luthers Bach Ensemble.

North and South The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, the 17th century, may have been full of splendour in the fields of trade, painting and literature, but in music the situation was far from rosy. The epicentre of musical innovation lay in Italy, whose composers were admired as supreme across Europe. While this will have hurt the pride of composers in Northern Europe and elsewhere, who disputed this supremacy publicly, in private most of them sought to benefit from their Mediterranean contemporaries, studying the latest Italian music or apprenticing themselves to Italian masters. In the Netherlands, the style of Monteverdi and other Italian composers had a profound influence on the music of Jan Baptist Verrijt, who was probably born around 1600 in Oirschot and died in Rotterdam in 1650. Together with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Verrijt is perhaps the most important Dutch composer of the 17th century, an assessment based his only surviving opus: the Flammae divinae, Op.5. It consists of 6 two-part and 12 three-part motets along with 2 three-part Mass settings. The work is believed to have been intended for use both in Roman Catholic churches in the Southern Netherlands and in clandestine Roman Catholic churches in the predominantly protestant Republic. The high level of vocal technique demanded by Verrijt would seem at first to exclude the possibility of performance by non-professional singers. However, it's known that Verrijt's Opp. 4 & 5 could be found in the library of Groningen's collegium musicum, a group consisting almost entirely of amateur musicians. In the Flammae divinae Verrijt displays consummate mastery in combining the liveliness of the new, Italian stile concertato with the polyphonic techniques of the old Franco-Flemish school. The music sounds imaginative and dramatic, but is simultaneously balanced and controlled. Like Claudio Monteverdi and Alessandro Grandi, for example, Verrijt enlivens his complex multi-part church music with techniques borrowed from the madrigal and from opera. For this reason, Verrijt's Opus 5 is not only of interest as an unusual expression of Roman Catholic culture in the northern Netherlands, but also as a musically intriguing opus on an international level. Other information: - Recorded May 2000, Rotterdam - Trilingual Booklet in English, Dutch and German contains liner notes by Kees Vlaardingerbroek - Jan Baptist Verrijt was, together with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, perhaps the most important Dutch composer of the seventeenth century. His most important surviving work, Flammae divinae, Opus 5, consists of six two-part and twelve three-part motets along with two three-part settings for Mass, and was published in the period when Verrijt was employed as an organist by the Great Church of St Laurens in Rotterdam (1644-50). - In this work Verrijt displays consummate mastery in combining the liveliness of the new Italian stile concertato with the polyphonic techniques of the old Franco-Flemish school. The music sounds imaginative and dramatic, but is simultaneously balanced and controlled. Like Claudia Monteverdi Verrijt enlivens his complex multi-part church music with techniques borrowed from the madrigal and from opera, employing the old imitative techniques in a new way to achieve a strong emotional effect. - Performed by one of the most prominent and pioneering Early Music vocal ensembles of the 20-th century, The Consort of Musicke, featuring Emma Kirkby, and directed by Anthony Rooley. - A reissue from the NM Classics label, the label for music from The Netherlands.