Recommended Listening

By Scott Horton

For a walk this morning on the banks of the Øresund, I picked out these recordings of sacred choral works by Dietrich Buxtehude (born in Helsingör, not far from where I'm staying). Everyone knows Buxtehude's magnificent organ music, but the choral works are spectacular—the best of the middle Baroque tradition. They say that the young J.S. Bach walked the 240 miles to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude perform his Abendmusik. A spin through these recordings and you'll understand why.

Dietrich Buxtehude, Membra Jesu Nostri (DGG Archiv: John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists)

Dietrich Buxtehude, Sacred Cantatas (Harmonia Mundi: Konrad Junghängel, Cantus Cölln)