Magnificat to Reprise Buxtehude, Membra Jesu Nostri

Warren Stewart

On the weekend of March 18-20, Warren Stewart will lead Magnificat in a program of music by Dieterich Buxtehude. Since Magnificat first performed Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri in 1996, the cycle of seven cantatas has become the composer’s most performed and recorded work. Each of the cantatas is built around three stanzas from the medieval poem Salve mundi salutare, also know as Rhythmica oratio. The program will open with the dramatic cantata Fürwahr er trug unsere Krankheit (BuxWV 31), a setting of Isaiah 53, which survives as Buxtehude’s only autograph score. Sopranos Catherine Webster and Jennifer Paulino, countertenor Andrew Rader, tenor David Kurtenbach and bass Robert Stafford join instrumentalists Rob Diggins, Jolianne Einem, Julie Jeffrey, Hallie Pridham, John Dornenburg and Jillon Stoppels Dupree. Read more about Buxtehude and the music on this program.

Performances will take place 8:00 p.m. Friday, March 18, at First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto; 8:00 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley; and 4:00 p.m. Sunday, March 20, at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco. For tickets visit http://magnificatbaroque.tix.com or call  800-595-4849.

Written by Jonathan Harris