There is much to enjoy here, but sadly the lovely Treutmann organ is just not the right instrument for Buxtehude. Apart from being built much later, it lacks a Rückpositiv, so crucial for the spatial effects Buxtehude’s music demands. The booklet notes even acknowledge this, describing the organ’s design as a renunciation of North German principles in favour of a Central German blended sound. In Nun freut euch BuxWV210, Buxtehude asks for double echoes using distinct divisions; with the Treutmann, the effect is reduced to volume change with no spatial contrast. The single echoes in the Te Deum.

BuxWV218 fare better. Smaller registrations are more successful, with attractive chorale preludes like BuxWV201 and a lovely use of the Vox Humana in BuxWV187. However, the acoustic is overly resonant, favouring the bass and muddying loud pedal passages. This is far from the clarity of the brick Baltic churches Buxtehude would have known. In Stylus Phantasticus works, Flamme often lacks rhetorical nuance – especially the rushed ending of BuxWV153. BuxWV142, which closes the first disc, is more successful but still marred by pedal clarity.

There are many other Buxtehude recordings on more suitable instruments. This release, despite a beautiful organ, doesn’t quite serve the repertoire. I say this having played the Treutmann myself, along with historic North German organs like the 1657 Stellwagen at Stralsund and the Schnitger at Cosmae Stade – instruments that truly capture the sound world Buxtehude knew.

★★