Review

Dietrich Buxtehude: Organ Works Vol. 2

What sets this playing apart from that of the majority of other programmes of Buxtehude's organ music is a sense of pace and space - like opening the windows of a lofty room to the clear sky and hearing the song of skylarks. The sound of music being set free and given room to breathe. In her sense of pace, Bine Bryndorf shows herself alive, not only to the beauty of the music and to the wonderfully voiced organ but also to the acoustic of St. Mary's Elsinore. Her ability to make full use of the space into which this splendid instrument speaks is pure delight. The sense of poise which she gives to the music finds expression in the larger pieces just as much as in the smaller scale Choral Preludes, where the interplay of musical voices is like the happy conversation of friends gathered around the kitchen table at suppertime.

The main delight in this disc, for me, is in these more intimate moments, where Bine Bryndorf's excellent taste in registration, articulation and sense of musical line really illuminate the music from within. Both player and instrument are very well matched.

Like the organs built by Schnitger, this instrument is beautifully voiced; an organ in which individual stops form, in combination, a perfectly balanced whole.

Excellently recorded, nicely packaged with an informative booklet, which has the luxury of the registrations used as well the themes of the Choral Preludes. Highly recommended.