Buxtehude / Luthers Bach Ensemble - Membra Jesu Nostri [CD]

Membra Jesu nostri consists of seven cantatas which graphically depict the suffering of Christ and the different parts of his tormented body. The surprising beauty and integrity of the cycle as a whole lies in it's combination of the strict Protestant North German style with that of the Italian school, the symbiosis of mystical outbursts and dancing, transparent and almost ethereal textures. The Groningen-based Luthers Bach Ensemble recorded this in spring 2021, at the height of the pandemic, through which they have played as active a part in the city's cultural scene as possible with socially distanced concerts and music-making. Formed in 2006, the LBE can call upon a pool of highly practised early-music specialists in both voices and instruments, as well as the longer Dutch history of historically informed performance praxis. The stylistic pedigree of this new recording of Membra Jesu nostri places it alongside the great recordings of the cycle over the course of the last half-century. A fine balance is struck between the solemn piety of the cycle's text and the assuaging pathos of it's expression, with it's many striking contrasts of solo and large-scale textures, it's passionate outbursts and reflective melismas.