The key to Buxtehude’s trio
sonatas, both for performers and for
listeners, is an awareness of the stylus
fantasticus which German composers
of the late 17th and early 18th centuries
developed in response to the new
freely inventive style of Italian
composers such as Claudio Merulo and
Girolamo Frescobaldi.
‘It is the most free and unrestrained
method of composing,’ wrote one
contemporary theorist. ‘It is bound to
nothing, neither to any words nor to a
melodic subject, instituted to display
genius and to teach the hidden design
of harmony and the ingenious composition
of harmonic phrases and fugues.’
The seven sonatas in each of these
collections, published in Hamburg in
1696, offer a continuous succession of
short movements, up to eight per sonata,
which alternate between slow and
fast tempi, and improvisatory and
contrapuntal textures, dominated
by a dazzling array of ostinato
variations which embed the melodies
in the listener’s consciousness.
We encounter witty solos,
dialogues and conversations, sublime
suspensions, jaunty syncopations and
occasional excursions into strange and
modal harmony. The expressive range
is accordingly wide, venturing in Op.1
No.6 into a D minor realm of darkness
and desperation.
The musicians on this new
recording of Buxtehude’s trio sonatas
are experienced and skilful practitioners
of Baroque style, with an
impressive catalogue of albums on
Valerio Losito has recorded the
violin sonatas of Scarlatti, Telemann and
Tessarini, among others, while Simone
Stella has made complete surveys of
the organ and harpsichord output by
Froberger and Pachelbel –
‘performed with natural flair, especially
with respect to clarifying counterpoint’
(Gramophone).
Simone Stella introduces these
fascinating works, milestones in the
history of German-Baroque chamber
music, with an extensive booklet essay.
This is ‘music full of lyrically delicate,
sorrowful, and dramatic emotions,’ he
says, ‘as well as melodious, harmonically
gratifying, and full of vitality, a
world of sound that consecrates him
as a unique genius in the Pantheon
of Music.’