Buxtehude: Complete Organ Works, Vol. 1

Friedhelm Flamme’s series featuring organ works of the Northern German Baroque now finds its logical continuation with Dietrich Buxtehude, the leading master in the discipline of Northern German organ artistry. In order to underscore his special interpretive style, the result of his many decades of occupation with practically the entire Northern German repertoire, Flamme has selected the Treutmann organ in the Grauhof Monastery near Goslar, an instrument that has been preserved largely in its original form and conveys Buxtehude’s innovative, visionary musical artistry in a very different way than the well-known Schnitger organs in Northern Germany. Each album is designed in the manner of an exciting concert program revealing two things: first, the variety of Buxtehude’s compositions, which include free pieces and chorale settings to be executed on the manuals or with virtuosic pedal playing and occur in styles ranging from nimble canzonettas and basso ostinato forms filled with gravity