Buxtehude organ works

Started by Shrunk, October 10, 2007, 05:19:46 AM

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Shrunk

Any recommendations?  I'd like a complete set, but I won't mind recommendations on recitals of selected works as well.  Thanks in advance.

Harry

In my ears the best set you can buy, in sound and performance. Reviews are raving.

premont

Agree with Harry. As I have written earlier: If you are going to acquire just one set, this should be the one. But the competition among second sets is strong.
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val

To me, the best part of Buxtehude organ works are the Preludes and Fugues, the Passacaglia and the two Chacones.

Michel Chapuis (VALOIS) was very good. The old anthology of Helmut Walcha (ARCHIV) is also remarkable.

Koopman is recording a new version, but I haven't listened to it yet.

71 dB

Quote from: Shrunk on October 10, 2007, 05:19:46 AM
Any recommendations?  I'd like a complete set, but I won't mind recommendations on recitals of selected works as well.  Thanks in advance.

I think the Naxos discs are excellent (and cheap). I have nothing to complain.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Harry

Quote from: 71 dB on October 11, 2007, 03:39:30 AM
I think the Naxos discs are excellent (and cheap). I have nothing to complain.

They are certainly good Poju, but honestly no match for Vogel. :)

71 dB

Quote from: Harry on October 11, 2007, 03:46:55 AM
They are certainly good Poju, but honestly no match for Vogel. :)

Well, unfortunately I bought 4 of those Naxos discs before even knowing about the Vogel set. Anyway, those Naxos discs have been getting 10/10 ratings in CT so I'll survive. Someday there will be a new set that makes Vogel 2nd best so what can you do? That's life.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

FideLeo

Quote from: 71 dB on October 11, 2007, 03:54:27 AM
Someday there will be a new set that makes Vogel 2nd best....

Oh but Vogel will continue to reign in Bux-land for quite a while...  :D
HIP for all and all for HIP! Harpsichord for Bach, fortepiano for Beethoven and pianoforte for Brahms!

Don

Quote from: 71 dB on October 11, 2007, 03:54:27 AM
Well, unfortunately I bought 4 of those Naxos discs before even knowing about the Vogel set. Anyway, those Naxos discs have been getting 10/10 ratings in CT so I'll survive.

CT hands out 10/10 ratings at an alarming rate.  I also have all the Naxos/Buxtehude organ discs, and not one of them deserves a 10.  Vogel is a significant improvement - so are Bryndorf on Dacapo and Saorgin on Harmonia Mundi.

71 dB

Quote from: Don on October 11, 2007, 08:02:21 AM
CT hands out 10/10 ratings at an alarming rate.  I also have all the Naxos/Buxtehude organ discs, and not one of them deserves a 10.  Vogel is a significant improvement - so are Bryndorf on Dacapo and Saorgin on Harmonia Mundi.

In my opinion the Naxos discs do deserve 10/10 rating. The other I have not heard so I don't comment.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

head-case

No opinion of the Walter Kraft set on Vox?

premont

Quote from: head-case on October 11, 2007, 09:54:20 AM
No opinion of the Walter Kraft set on Vox?

Walter Kraft´s interpretations are grandiose with an almost gothic air and also a tad romantic, but with great authority and expression and often reaching ecstatic effects. He plays the reconstructed Totentanz-organ (Karl Kemper) in Marienkirche, Lübeck. His registrations are full and sometimes a bit heavy. Recordings were made 1957 in early stereo, good for the time but sometimes with some distortion, and always with much reverberation (due to the great church). I don´t think his set is well suited for the first acquaintance with the works, and would rather recommend Vogel (see above) or Foccroulle.

I have attended several of the late Walter Kraft´s organ recitals (playing among others Buxtehude), and he was even better in the real life than on recordings, his playing always exuding marvellous concentration. He perished in a hotel fire in Amsterdam in 1977.
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Don

Quote from: 71 dB on October 11, 2007, 09:11:06 AM
In my opinion the Naxos discs do deserve 10/10 rating. The other I have not heard so I don't comment.

How can you have any idea what rating the Naxos discs deserve if you haven't heard the competition?

71 dB

Quote from: Don on October 11, 2007, 01:09:27 PM
How can you have any idea what rating the Naxos discs deserve if you haven't heard the competition?

Because I have nothing to complain. I am an unemployed person, I can't invest money on all the competition just to find out how crappy some of my CDs are. That would be plain stupid. Naxos is good enough, hands down.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

premont

And actually the level of the Naxos set is very good. Especially true of the volumes played by Wolfgang Rübsam and his pupil Julia Brown.
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Don

Quote from: premont on October 12, 2007, 05:58:53 AM
And actually the level of the Naxos set is very good. Especially true of the volumes played by Wolfgang Rübsam and his pupil Julia Brown.

I was a little disappointed with Rubsam's volume.  With his sharply etched and exciting Bach organ recordings in mind, I didn't get what I expected with his Buxtehude disc.  What I did get was rather mainstream interpretations.

premont

Quote from: Don on October 12, 2007, 12:52:40 PM
I was a little disappointed with Rubsam's volume.  With his sharply etched and exciting Bach organ recordings in mind, I didn't get what I expected with his Buxtehude disc.  What I did get was rather mainstream interpretations.

Yes, less extravagant than his Naxos Bach cycle, but mainstream? If you feel this to be mainstream, the reason might be, that his complete Buxtehude cycle from the mid 1980es has set the norm.
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FideLeo

Quote from: premont on October 12, 2007, 02:22:52 PM
Yes, less extravagant than his Naxos Bach cycle, but mainstream? If you feel this to be mainstream, the reason might be, that his complete Buxtehude cycle from the mid 1980es has set the norm.

Don may be referring to Rubsam's earlier Bach recordings for Philips (deemed very desirable by many) and
not to his much later Naxos.  I stopped buying his Naxos series after just two disappointments.  Did Rubsam
also record his 80s Bux cycle for Philips? 
HIP for all and all for HIP! Harpsichord for Bach, fortepiano for Beethoven and pianoforte for Brahms!

premont

Quote from: masolino on October 12, 2007, 02:34:56 PM
Don may be referring to Rubsam's earlier Bach recordings for Philips (deemed very desirable by many) and not to his much later Naxos. 

You are right, I didn´t think of that.

Quote from: masolino on October 12, 2007, 02:34:56 PM
Did Rubsam also record his 80s Bux cycle for Philips? 

It was at least released on vinyl by Philips in the mid-1980es. Later it was released on CD by a small German company, whose name always escapes me, Bella Musica, I think, but I can find out, since I own two of the volumes. They were practically unavailable in Denmark, and when the possibility of Internet-trade came by, they vere OOP. I got JPCs last items of the two volumes I own.

Actually I like Rübsam´s meditative, reflective style in his later Bach recording for Naxos very much. Only his Art of Fugue I find too romantic.
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FideLeo

Quote from: premont on October 12, 2007, 03:13:00 PM
Actually I like R?sam? meditative, reflective style in his later Bach recording for Naxos very much. Only his Art of Fugue I find too romantic.

Exactly the Art of Fugue were the two disappointing discs I got before quitting altogether on him and Naxos. BTW Rubsam now lives both in Germany and in Indiana US, where he works sometimes as a barber;D
HIP for all and all for HIP! Harpsichord for Bach, fortepiano for Beethoven and pianoforte for Brahms!