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 most performed and recoreded work. Each of the cantatas is built around three stanzas from the medieval poem Salve mundi salutare, also known 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.