The latest release in Danish organist, Bine Bryndorf's
survey of the complete organ works of Buxtehude, takes her,
again, to a church where Buxtehude himself was employed early
in his career: the church of St Mary in Helsingborg. Unlike
the instrument in Elsinore featured on the previous release,
the new organ in Helsingborg is not an attempt to re-create
an instrument of Buxtehude's time. Rather it takes the style
of organ-building prevalent in this part of Northern Europe
at the time as the starting-point for a new instrument. The
organ builder, the Swede Robert Gustavsson, has created a small
instrument, 2/17 including two transmissions, of admirable quality;
lyrical flutes, characterful reeds and a no-nonsense plenum,
in which Bryndorf frequently includes the Sexqaltera (sic).
Despite Bryndorf's necessarily imaginative use of such a small
organ, and despite its undoubted qualities, I found the sound
to be a little oppressive after a long time. I played a very
similar organ by the same builder in Gothenburg a few years
ago and found much the same thing, although there the room was
far poorer than here. The very pronounced attack of the Praestants
in particular I find unattractive, especially when used in a
solo context, (with or without the Sexqaltera).
Bryndorf again produces stylish performances of
great beauty. Her chorale preludes in particular reveal her
insights into this literature, each capturing very perceptively
the affekt of the piece. Likewise the Canzona and Canzonetta
movements find Bryndorf getting right to the heart of the music;
listen especially to the charming Spitz Floit in the G major
Canzonetta. I find her concept of the Stylus Phantasticus movements
more troubling; they again mostly feature rather similar accelerandi
at the beginning, suggesting a slightly narrow view of the interpretation
of the rhetorical gestures, and often feature rather complex
registration schemes. Given, for example, that the BuxWV 163
g minor Praeludium is almost certainly a harpsichord pieces
- it is written manualiter and contains rather thick textures
low in the compass from the outset - it doesn't appear in the
new Belotti edition of the free organ works - why make such
a complex registration scheme? Also the use of 8' pedal in fugues
is a subjective non-source based concept which, while very commonly
applied today, is difficult to justify within the practical
context of surviving organs of the period. That does not mean
that tonally it is not possible, (it is!), but the number of
registration changes means that registrants are essential and
the evidence for there having been registrants as a matter of
course in 17th century North Germany is meagre.
The whole approach, if not precisely the execution,
is the result of the philosophy of Harald Vogel. I must state
categorically that I am a Vogel admirer - his approach and his
playing is beautiful, creative, but above all personal, based
on subjective musicological judgements of very limited source
material.
Bryndorf's Buxtehude set, when complete, will be
highly recommendable - she plays with great beauty and insight
on organs of high quality. The well presented booklets; notes
by Kerala Snyder, and the appearance of all the chorale melodies,
increase the stature of these releases further. At the moment
Vogel's own iconic set on Dabringhaus und Grimm still rules
the roost, but among more recent releases this is an admirable
set, even out-scoring the usually excellent Naxos, whose Buxtehude
set, unusually is proving very hit and miss.
Chris
Bragg
Bine Bryndorf, organ
