“not only the tension, but also sweetness and tenderness”
Masaaki Suzuki on Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri
50 years of Carus – 50 years of passion for choral music, which we share with you. In the Carus anniversary year, each month in the CARUS blog prominent choral directors present their personal highlight from five centuries of choral music for you.
Just by coincidence, I went to the Marienkirche in Lübeck last week to make a documentary program for Japanese and German TV. This visit made me wonder whether Buxtehude truly performed his famous concerts of ‘Abendmusiken’ in this huge church. Especially for works performed by small ensembles, like Membra Jesu nostri, it certainly looks too large.
Or, on the contrary, it might have been just the appropriate place to perform Membra, because the very high ceilings and solemn atmosphere with long reverberation would make us concentrate even more on the music. For example, if the beginning of this work’s third movement, “Ad Manus”, sounds here, I should indeed feel shivers down my spine.
Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum?
What are those wounds in the midst of Your hands?
This work, however, brings us, not only the tension, but also sweetness and tenderness which comes close to something like ‘Romanticism’ in 17th century. This truly would be a big surprise especially for those who are already acquainted with Buxtehude’s dramatic and improvisatory Preludia and Toccata for the organ – like me. Needless to say, this ‘Romanticism’ derives from the ‘Pietismus’ at the time, and had an enormous influence also on the young Bach.
Just before Bach’s church cantata series was started some 30 years ago, we, Bach Collegium Japan, have performed this work by Buxtehude as a pre-concert to Bach’s early cantatas in a small church in Tokyo, and also recorded it later. I was not sure at all if Japanese audiences would enjoy this kind of music, since it is utterly contemplative and has no buoyant mood. It is so different from many other standards of so-called Classical Music in Japan, like a symphony orchestra or an opera. But it seemed that many people were impressed, and one of them, a middle-aged lady, told me that she was completely captivated by this music, and listened to our CD over 500 times! Indeed, in spite of its modest and simple guise, this work has an enormous power to attract us.
I am looking forward to having a chance to perform this wonderful work again, anywhere in the world…
Dieterich Buxtehude: Membra Jesu nostri
Carus 36.013
Dieterich Buxtehude: Membra Jesu nostri
Hans Christoph Rademann
Dresdner Kammerchor
Since founding Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, Masaaki Suzuki has established himself as a leading authority on the works of Bach. He has remained their Music Director ever since, taking them regularly to major venues and festivals in Europe and the USA and building up an outstanding reputation for the expressive refinement and truth of his performances.
Dieterich Buxtehude: Last Judgment
Johann Sebastian Bach: The newly born, the little child
Dieterich Buxtehude Missa brevis
Dieterich Buxtehude Membra Jesu nostri (CD)
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