‘Ricercar Consort - Philippe Pierlot’

Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was a gifted composer and organist  ̶  it is said that Johann Sebastian Bach travelled three hundred kilometres to hear him play. Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri (1680) occupies a special place in the Protestant liturgical practice. The cycle of seven cantatas was developed each around a different part of Christ’s crucified body – feet, knees, hands, sides, breast, heart and face. Buxtehude’s music is subdued and poignant with occasional outbursts of mystical ecstasy and passion. The cycle’s splendid sensuality is reminiscent of Monteverdi’s last madrigals or a combination of Bach’s Lutheran Masses and his future cantatas.

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