Praeludium in F# minor, BuxWV 146

Buxtehude at his most exciting and harmonically most adventurous. I also found this the most difficult piece of Buxtehude I have attempted to play. The piece falls into 6 sections - an introductory toccata, a chordal prelude, a slow fugue ('Grave'), a fast fugue ('Vivace'), a recitative-type section, and a concluding toccata. The unusual key with its frequent incursions into F# major and C# major gives the piece an interesting edge on any baroque temperament, which must be what the composer intended. Listen for the point where a broken F# minor chord in the manuals is accompanied by A# in the pedal. This performance uses Altenbruch original temperament and acoustic (though as with most of my uploads pitch is modern concert).