Listen & tracks

1 of 25 tracks have a preview · 12 works · 71:26

1 Praeludium in G minor, BuxWV 163 Dieterich Buxtehude 6:45
Suite in D minor, BuxWV 233Dieterich Buxtehude 5 movements8:27
1. 2 Allemande d’Amour 2:40
2. 3 Courante 1:22
3. 4 Sarabande d’Amour 2:05
4. 5 Sarabande 1:03
5. 6 Gigue 1:17
7 Canzona in C, BuxWV 166 Dieterich Buxtehude 4:18
8 Canzonetta in E minor, BuxWV 169 Dieterich Buxtehude 3:14
Suite in G minor, BuxWV 241Dieterich Buxtehude 4 movements6:50
1. 9 Allemande 2:38
2. 10 Courante 1:35
3. 11 Sarabande 1:29
4. 12 Gigue 1:08
13 Aria: More Palatino, BuxWV 247 Dieterich Buxtehude (12 variations) 13:06
14 Toccata in G, BuxWV 164 Dieterich Buxtehude 2:35
Suite in E minor, BuxWV 237Dieterich Buxtehude 4 movements8:15
1. 15 Allemande 2:48
2. 16 Courante 1:44
3. 17 Sarabande 1:38
4. 18 Gigue 2:05
19 Canzona in D minor, BuxWV 217 Dieterich Buxtehude 4:12
Suite in C major, BuxWV 230Dieterich Buxtehude 4 movements8:44
1. 20 Allemande 2:11
2. 21 Courante 1:39
3. 22 Sarabande 3:06
4. 23 Gigue 1:48
24 Aria: Rofilis, BuxWV 248 Dieterich Buxtehude (3 variations) 2:18
25 Fuga in C, BuxWV 174 Dieterich Buxtehude 2:42

Buxtehude, the composers’ composer!

J.S. Bach walked 200 miles to hear him play and nearly lost his job. Handel ‘borrowed’ the opening theme from his Prelude in G for “And he shall purify” in the Messiah. Brahms, Pachelbel, Bruhns and Mattheson were all inspired by him. His fame was widespread even in his day, and he is often called the most significant organ composer before Bach.

In 1739 Mattheson lamented that while Buxtehude was well known for his organ works, his keyboard music had never been published, despite being of a high order.

Acclaimed harpsichordist Jacqueline Ogeil has assembled a programme of those harpsichord works, most of which were recovered only in the mid-twentieth century. Written in the popular Baroque idioms of gigue, suite, aria and variations, they are light, secular and entertaining.

Despite his fame, Johannes Voorhout’s Domestic Music Scene, Hamburg 1674, on the front cover, is the only known painting in which Buxtehude appears. He is seated second from the right with music from one of his cantatas on his lap. Ogeil secured permission to use the image after six months of negotiation with the museum in Hamburg, believing a historical image helps place the music in context.

Her harpsichord is a copy by Marc Nobel (Melbourne, 1988) of a seventeenth-century Flemish instrument by Jean Couchet. Pitch is A=415, and for this recording it is tuned in a well-tempered system of the kind Buxtehude used in his later years.

Reviews

★★★★★

— Sydney Morning Herald

High orders of achievement in the music and in the playing and recording involved in this disc earn it unqualified recommendation.

— Sydney Morning Herald

Confirms her status as a truly world-class harpsichordist

— Soundscapes

So this disc can be doubly welcomed firstly as filling a gap in our knowledge of pre-Bach keyboard music and secondly for Jacqueline Ogeil’s brilliant performances.

— The Canberra Times

Artists

Dieterich Buxtehude

composer

Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707) was a Danish-born organist and composer of the middle Baroque, long based at Lübeck. His organ works remain central to the standard repertoire.

Jacqueline Ogeil

harpsichord

Jacqueline Ogeil is an Australian harpsichordist, organist and conductor. Known for Baroque performance and for championing new works written for the harpsichord, she founded the Melbourne ensemble Accademia Arcadia.