Colin Booth plays the copy he made of the iron-strung French harpsichord of 1681 by Antoine Vaudry, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The domestic music of Buxtehude, intimate and profound; sometimes simple but perhaps requiring technical prowess, may often posses grave emotional force. The sets of Variations display wide variety of technique that the composer seldom duplicates. Spontaneous and spare, it sometimes calls for elaboration and ornament by the player. Buxtehude probably sought to surpass the popular variations of his contemporaries, particularly Reincken. The most elaborate, La Capricciosa, sparked Bach's hommage in the Goldberg Variations.
Variations in C, BuxWV 246: Aria, Variations 1-7, Variations 8-10, Aria Suite in C, BuxWV 230: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue Suite in A, BuxWV 243: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue Suite in D Minor, BuxWV 234: Allmande, Allemande double, Courante, Courante double, Sarabande I, Sarabande II, Saraband I repeat Variations in A Minor, BuxWV 249: Aria, Variation 1, Variation 2, Aria Suite in F, BuxWV 239: : Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue Suite in G Minor, BuxWV 24: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue Variations in G La Capricciosa, BuxWV 250: Aria; Variations 1-3, 6-8, 10, 12-13, 15, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29-32, Aria repeat
Writes James Davy in Early Music Today: A player for whom the ‘stylus phantasticus’ holds no fear or caution is Colin Booth… This is gutsy, unfussy, virtuosic playing with both freedom and control, and I found my feet tapping along more than once. Booth’s ability to sustain and project lines brings the music right off the page with an immediacy… compellingly presented.
Writes Peter Grahame Woolf in Musical Pointers: It is all enjoyable music and sounds good on this sweet-toned instrument, whose beauties are well demonstrated. Booth has an easy command of the French notes inégales style, which gives the playing a naturalness. Recommended.
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