The Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis, one of the most illustrious in Europe, ‎will be at L’Auditori on 1 December to present its recording ‎‎Abendmusiken, featuring works by Dietrich Buxtehude. The ‎album, released on the Alpha label, recently won in the Choral category of the ‎prestigious Gramophone Awards, an accolade that further reaffirms the celebrated ‎reputation of the ensemble.‎

‎”Perfectly balanced and beautifully recorded, this is another outstanding ‎release from Lionel Meunier and his team”.‎

‎Gramophone
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The album is a tribute to the series of Sunday evening concerts that Buxtehude presented ‎during Advent at the Marienkirche in Lübeck (which spurred Bach to walk 400 km to attend). ‎

Buxtehude succeeded Franz Tunder who had initiated these evening performances with ‎organ music and a variety of vocal pieces. The new organist reorganised the concerts and ‎scheduled them to take place on the five Sundays preceding Christmas. He also increased the ‎number of musicians who took part, wrote new music, and even had books with some of the ‎performed pieces printed.‎

Vox Luminis, directed by Lionel Meunier, brings one of these concerts back to life at ‎L’Auditori. The concert includes a series of cantatas that Buxtehude composed exclusively for ‎these Abendmusiken. Away from the routine of writing each Sunday’s liturgical ‎music, the organist found a rekindled interest in composition, demonstrating an ‎incomparable quality and rhetoric.‎