Luogo e data di registrazione		Église Protestante, Ribeauvillé (France) - 18/21 Ocotber 2005
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Executive Producer		Dagmar Munck-Sandner, Dr. Richard Lorber
	Recording engineer		Eckhard Mehne
	Mixing engineer		Burkhard Pitzer-Landeck
	Recording supervisor		Michael Sandner
	Mastering		Irmgard Bauer
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Sony / Vivarte - 82876782652 - (2 CDs) - durata 76' 23" & 54' 14" - (p) 2006 - DDD
	Cover Art		"Assumption of the Virgin" (detail) by Tiziano Vecellio (1488/90-1576 - Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venezia
	Note		A co-production with Südwestrundfunk and Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln

Dietrich Buxtehude was born in 1637 most probably in Helsingborg, which is now part of Sweden but at that time belonging to Denmark. He was the son of a German organist, Johannes Buxtehude, who came from Bad Oldesloe in Holstein, not far from Lübeck. When Dietrich was young his family moved over the Øre Sound to Helsingør where his father had become organist at St. Olai's Church. Whether Buxtehude studied with anyone else apart from his father is not known, but he may- at least informally - have studied with organists in Copenhagen and Hamburg. At the age of twenty he took up his first position as organist of St. Mary's Church in Helsingørg, where his father had also served but returned to Helsingør in 1660 to become orgainst at the Church of St. Mary there. With the death of Franz Tunder in 1667 the prestigious position of organist at St. Mary's in Lübeck became free and Buxtehude was chosen in preference to two other competitors for the position. Buxtehude took up his new post in April 1668 and a few months later he married the daughter of his predecessor. Public concerts in churches are nowadays so normal that we forget that such events are relatively new. Music in the church was generally part of church services, and it was a great innovation when in 1646 Buxtehude's predecessor Tunder began to present religious music in concerts known as Abendmusiken which were sponsored by the local business men. Buxtehude was a very successful entrepreneur who succeeded, at least in most years, in securing enough funding for these large-scale concerts to be presented in the 5 weeks before Christmas excluding the first Advent Sunday, and they gained a great reputation far beyond the boundaries of Lübeck. Although sometimes just festive cantatas were performed for the Abendmusiken, in most years Buxtehude wrote a long oratorio specially for these events. In fact, these oratorios could almost be designated church-operas; a clergyman in Hamburg, Hinrich Elmenhorst, who wrote libretti for the opera house there, defended his occupation against fellow-clergyman by saying “I can't fail to mention here how the world-famous Lübeck musician and organist, Diedericus Buxtehude, has performed more than one such opera for the customary Abendmusik, which takes place at a certain time of year in public churches there” (“Hierbey mag ich ohnberührt nicht lassen, wie der weltberühmte Lübeckische Musicus und Organista zur Marienkirche, Diedericus Buxtehude, mehr als eine dergleichen Opere in öffentlicher Kirchen bey daselbst zu gewisser Jahreszeit gewöhnlicher Abend-Music hat hören lassen...”) and furthermore on the title page of another oratorio Himmlische Seelenlust Buxtehude describes it as “in the opera style with many arias and ritornelli” (“auf der Operen Art mit vielen Arien u. Ritornellen”). The music to all of Buxtehudes oratorios has been lost, apart from an anonymous manuscript Wacht! Euch zum Streit gefasset macht (Awake! prepare for strife), contained in the collection of Buxtehude's friend, the Stockholm Kapellmeister Gustav Düben, that is now in the library of Uppsala University. The paper used for copying it is the same as that used for some other works by Buxtehude and dates from around 1685. The many near citations from various Buxtehude cantatas as well as the fact that such long oratorios at this time were unique to Lübeck, makes the case for Buxtehude as the composer overwhelming. The surviving libretto of another oratorio by Buxtehude uses a similar combination of chorales, Bible quotations and free poetry. The argument that the lack of complexer contrapunctal passages disqualifies Buxtehude, fails to recognize that the composer was writing here for the ordinary people of Lübeck, and not for an intellectual elite. The crowds who came were such that the police had to be present to keep control. In fact, failure to recognize that in some respects the “jüngste Gericht”, despite the drama being implicit rather than explicit, requires a performance style closer to opera rather than to church music, together with a truncated published edition have lead to an unwarranted neglect of this masterpiece. The title Das jüngste Gericht (The Last Judgement), under which the oratorio has become known, was the invention of its first editor, Willi Maxton, who published it in 1937 in a drastically cut and reordered version, leaving out the solos for alto and tenor, the many trios for alto, tenor and bass and the long final choruses, which sum up the moral of each of the three acts. Although he meant well, he actually destroyed the architecture of the piece, and made it more monotonous, with only two soprano and a bass soloists. The Uppsala manuscript consisted originally of a set of ten parts - 2 sopranos, alto, tenor, bass, 2 violins, 2 violettas and basso continuo for each of the three acts. At some point the original title page with the composer`s name as well as the first violin part to the second act were lost and the latter to be reconstructed for this recording. The original source must also have contained at least a part for violone or dulcian as there are some bars where the basso continuo drops out. It seems to have been copied in a hurry with several scribes working together on it and only the minimum essential being copied. Where the viola players doubled on violin, this was simply noted in Act II and not written out. Despite the existence in the Uppsala source of only ten parts one should not be misled into thinking the work was conceived for performance by just ten musicians. Extra soprano, bass and trombone parts are written into the other parts and generally Buxtehude was able to call on as many as forty musicians for his Abendmusíken. On several occasions new wind instruments were bought especially for these events, Buxtehude's colleague the Kantor Pagendarm confirming their necessity as follows: “well-made music cannot be presented in large churches without wind instruments any more than on an organ without any strong stops” (“Ohne blasende Instrumente kann eine wohlgestallte Musik in großen Kirchen so wenig präsentiert werden wie eine Orgel ohne starke Register”). Following this and other works by Buxtehude designated “a 10 vel 20” we have assumed that an optimal performance would have employed 5 ripieno singers and wind instruments to double or alternate with the strings. Buxtehude's alto and soprano soloists would have been male falsettists not boys although boys might have sung as ripieni singers. The sound of trombones with baroque mutes and the great bass shawm may surprise the listener, but the former were specified by Buxtehude in a number of his works and the latter instrument was purchased in 1685 by St. Mary's and is still in the St. Annen Museum, Lübeck. Most probably the three acts of the Jüngste Gericht would have been performed on the last Sunday after Trinitatis - known as Last Judgement Sunday - and the second and third Sundays of Advent since the Bible readings for those days, concern themselves with Judgement, man's self-indulgence and interest in worldly pleasure, prophecies and warnings against such behaviour, and the rewards of heaven. The same ideas are also expressed in the Jüngste Gericht. After a long introductory sonata, which functions as a prologue, Act I begins with a warning to mankind to be wakeful and fight against the temptations of the vices; faith in God will be rewarded. Thus the first chorus introduces the basic ideas of the drama and the three vices, Avarice (Geitz), Wantonness (Leichtfertigkeit) and Pride (Hoffarth). The three vices first argue among themselves as to who is the most important or most capable of bringing man's downfall. Then the three decide to unite their arts, and claim whoever rejects God will be rewarded. The chorus again enters with a warning to mankind of God's punishments after which Pride replies with more enticement before “die Göttliche Stimm” (The Divine Voice) appears for the first time with words of warning taken from the Scriptures, his role throughout the oratorio. He alternates with the three vices, who continue to extoll the virtues of worldly pleasures in their attempt to seduce mankind. Act I ends with a chorus ridiculing the ideas of the vices and contrasting them with the virtues Christ can offer. The three personified vices no longer appear in Acts II and III; the conflict between good and evil is now personified by two soprano soloists, whom Maxton aptly named “die gute Seele” (The Good Soul) and “die böse Seele” (The Bad Soul). The bass voice continues as “The Divine Voice” although no longer named such by the composer, a tenor soloist appears as Jesus Christ and an alto, tenor, bass trio reflects on the action and offers advice. The opening chorus of Act II again makes the choices clear; whereas the good soul reflects on how to find the pearls of wisdom the bad soul continues the pursuit of material wealth. Central to the moral of the oratorio is the appearance of Christ (No. 30) with the text “I love those who love me...” While the Good Soul in contemplative arias finds spiritual riches in Christ, the Bad Soul is driven through life by the obsession with material things, but by the end of the act, after the interjection of The Divine Voice (No. 40), she has realized that all is in vain. Death will come and take away everything. After the chorus has sung of bitter death there is a sudden modulation to lead us back to the joyful keys of C and G major for the final rejoicing of the Good Soul and the chorus. With the end of Act Il the conflict would seem to be resolved but in Act III the paths of the two souls must be followed to their ends. The Bad Soul ending in being chased down to Hell and The Good Soul finding eternal peace.The chorus and ATB trio point to the way of righteousness but wheras the Good Soul rejoices in this the Bad Soul is unrelenting and becomes more depraved, being depicted as a drunken whore. The alto singer is tempted by sensuous pleasure but is immediately warned by The Divine Voice. The ATB trio makes a last attempt to bring the Bad Soul to reason but their pleas remain unheeded. The fate of the wicked is announced and expounded on by a bass trio (67). The Bad Soul knows now that all is lost and bemoans her lonely fate in an appropriate key - C sharp minor - which sounds very hard in the Werckmeister tuning. The ensuing chorus (71) hastens the ruin of The Bad Soul with a final accelerando followed by a drastic change of key to F minor for the last aria of the Bad Soul now knowing that all is lost. After she dies and is damned it only remains for Christ to summon the righteous to him to find final peace and the action is ended with the chorale “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” (In peace and joy I do depart). An instrumental interlude then leads in to the joyful final chorus, an epilogue that sums up the moral of the oratorio. Roland Wdilson