Glen Wilson’s liner notes to this album point to the small number of harpsichord pieces composed by Buxtehude, and their burial at the back of...

Glen Wilson’s liner notes to this album point to the small number of harpsichord pieces composed by Buxtehude, and their burial at the back of organ editions, as reasons for their lack of popularity. Yet, it has to be admitted that the composer didn’t help matters. In 1739, 32 years after Buxtehude’s death, Johann Mattheson praised in print the quality of these works, and complained that Buxtehude never published any of it. Mattheson was certainly one to know; he had visited the older composer in 1703, studied his music repeatedly over the years, and was considered as a possible successor for organist at Lübeck’s celebrated Marienkirche. (He lost interest after being informed by the city council that the position required marrying Buxtehude’s daughter. The custom of marrying the wife or daughter of one’s predecessor was once more common, and an ingeniously humane method of ensuring the well-being of those dearest to the last job-holder.) Some of the music Mattheson mentioned in passing is now lost, but according to the New Grove, a manuscript containing six variation sets and 19 suites survives.

Presumably, this is the source for much of the material Wilson performs, although the origins of the quasi-improvisatory Toccata and a couple of other selections on this release probably lie elsewhere. Some stylistic elements appear to indicate the organ loft as the inspiration; but if the Toccata is a transcription, it is a creative and successful one that draws attention to a witty, inventive, and technically brilliant piece of music. The other work most likely to evoke surprise in listeners unfamiliar with the composer’s harpsichord works is a set of 32 variations subtitled “La capricciosa.” Wilson makes excellent arguments for Bach’s knowledge of the piece, and his Goldberg Variations as a partial tribute. (Among other evidence, Buxtehude’s borrowed theme is in turn one of those Bach borrowed for his famous Quodlibet variation.) Bach would have appreciated the simplicity of the main theme, the all-encompassing emotional and textural variety among the variations, and the cumulative impact of the entire series. The quality of this pair of works is mirrored in the other, mostly shorter selections, evoking speculation about the composer’s motives for never publishing any of it.

Given that I disliked Glen Wilson’s release of harpsichord works by Louis Couperin, I doubted in advance the harpsichordist’s ability to render unto Buxtehude, Buxtehude’s due. I’m glad to write that my expectations weren’t met, and that this album provides a fine showcase both for performer and composer. Where Wilson was overly sober and slow in nearly all of the Couperin (including numerous selections that didn’t warrant this treatment), his tempos are more mercurial on this release. He treats ornamentation with a greater sense of confidence and ease, and demonstrates a naturally theatrical flair in the more dramatic pieces, such as the Toccata and the Praeludium in G Major. His sonorous instrument, a copy of a 1626 Ruckers by Jan van Schevikhoven, is also recorded somewhat closer and with more definition than the harpsichord used on that Couperin album. The result is a sound that still clearly aims to approach the organ in its plangency, but with more definition to Buxtehude’s musical contours. Recommended.

Barry Brenesal