FILAMENT: ALCHEMY OF ANOTHER
BRIDGE 9603

Buxtehude’s Opus 1 sits at a stylistic and formal crossroads, interweaving some of the most refined counterpoint of the 17th century with a sense of boundlessness in time and texture, creating a music in which order and fantasy coexist in perfectly imperfect balance. Composing at the dawn of the 18th century, Buxtehude demonstrates a fidelity to the caprices of earlier 17th-century works while also taking up the challenges of the more extended and developed ensemble writing then emerging in the works of Corelli and his 18th-century successors. FILAMENT comprises a core trio of violin, viola da gamba, and keyboards. FILAMENT'S mission is to be the bright connective thread — that eponymous filament — linking the world of its audience with that of its repertoire.

Reviews:

"The music is worth staying for of course, but so, it turns out, are the performances, which capture a lot of the edgy life these pieces have to offer."  — Gramophone

"From the weird to the conventional, these sonatas run the stylistic gamut. The C-major Op. 1, No. 5 has a rhythmic and harmonic stability that’s almost galant, yet Filament never lets it become trite. The dotted rhythm and oscillating eighth notes of the fifth-movement Allegro gigue are especially vibrant, contrasting pleasingly with the chromatics of the following Adagio; Filament makes the unusual and amusing decision to increase the Adagio’s speed until it seamlessly morphs into the work’s finale Allegro."  — Early Music America

BRIDGE 9603