- Composer: Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637/1639 -- 9 May 1707) - Performers: Boston Museum Trio - Year of recording: 1981 Sonata for violin, viola da gamba, and basso continuo in A minor, Op. 1 No. 3, BuxWV254, written in 1694. 00:00 - 1. Adagio 01:46 - 2. Allegro 03:34 - 3. Lento 05:12 - 4. Vivace 06:53 - 5. Largo 07:45 - 6. Presto, Adagio/Lento Years before J.S. Bach paved the way toward what is now largely considered the height of the German Baroque, Diet(e)rich Buxtehude was hard at work in northern Germany on his own individual union of the Italian and French Baroque styles. His Op. 1 is a sumptuous, dynamic set of seven sonatas scored for violin, gamba, and continuo (played here by cello and harpsichord). Unlike composers both before and after him, Buxtehude was far from formulaic when it came to the organization of his sonatas, each one having its own unique combination and sequence of movements. Buxtehude's originality did not stop there, to be sure. His harmonic (and chromatic!) progressions were quite progressive for the time, and the violin and gamba parts are outright virtuosic at many points through the set. Such forward-thinking compositions require an equally fresh dynamic performance, and a style of playing that accentuates the risk-taking inherent in Buxtehude's scores and do not make the mistake of treating the sonatas as stuffy, fragile works of art of which they are sometimes accused. When they are played like in this recording, it leaves one wondering how these captivating works could have been dormant for so long.