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Kaffee-Kantate
Amsterdam Baroque Choir
Classical - Released February 1, 2008 | Challenge Classics
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BACH, J.S.: Cantatas - BWV 211, 212 (Schreier)
Peter Schreier
Cantatas (secular) - Released January 1, 1977 | Corona Classics Collection
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Cantates Profanes - volume 1
Violons du Roy, Les
Classical - Released January 1, 1994 | Dorian
J. S. Bach Jésus, que ma joie demeure (Cantate "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben")
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Classical - Released January 26, 2018 | Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group
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Cantatas - 24 Highlights
Amsterdam Baroque Choir
Classical - Released May 4, 2009 | Challenge Classics
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Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben - Bach: Cantatas BWV 6-99-147
Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released September 1, 2023 | Phi
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4F de Télérama
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Bach Generations
Albrecht Mayer
Classical - Released August 4, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Bach Generations delivers, as promised, works by several members of the Bach family, ranging from Johann Sebastian's older cousin Johann Christoph Bach through J.S. Bach himself to sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. None of the works J.S. Bach is thought to have actually written for the oboe (these exist as adaptations by J.S. Bach himself for keyboard, but the originals have been reconstructed) is included. Those might have worked better than the transcriptions the Albrecht Mayer does play; the spiky Keyboard Concerto No. 2 of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach doesn't rest so easily on the oboe's keys. However, in the slower numbers, Mayer has a distinctively luxurious tone. Sample the adaptation of the tenor aria "Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer" from the Easter Oratorio, BWV 249. The familiar Badinerie from the Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067, is just as good on the oboe as it is on the flute. Mayer plays an oboe, an oboe d'amore, and an English horn for variety, and he is ably backed by the Berliner Barocksolisten. Another draw, especially for physical CD buyers, is the attractive drawing of the entire Bach family tree in the booklet. For oboe buffs, much of this album is likely to set a new standard, and it has shown considerable general appeal, making classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Bach: Violin Concertos
Leonidas Kavakos
Classical - Released March 29, 2024 | Sony Classical
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Johann Sebastian Bach : The French Suites
Murray Perahia
Classical - Released October 6, 2016 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Le Choix de France Musique
Approaching age 70, American pianist Murray Perahia moves with this release from his longtime home of Sony Classical, formerly Columbia Masterworks, to Deutsche Grammophon. The set of Bach's six French Suites, BWV 812-817, was recorded in a Berlin studio in 2013, but did not appear until three years later. This probably testifies to the complexity of the move, but whatever the case, the wait has been worth it. Perahia has long been a marvelous Bach pianist, but the French Suites perhaps display his skills especially well. The "French suites" designation was applied by later writers, not by Bach himself, but they do capture something of the music, even if the dances involved were as much Italian as French by the time Bach composed them in 1722. They apply deep counterpoint to dance rhythms, and Perahia's genius resides not in some great overarching concept of how to play Bach but in finding the balance between disparate elements in a work, and in finding the human warmth in the result. Each movement is distinctive; each moment unfolds something new. You could really start sampling anywhere, but try the final gigue of the second suite, in C minor, where the little ornaments that form the central feature of the movement each take on a rather eerie individual significance. Perahia avoids extremes of tempo, and his extremely detailed approach could be called intellectual, but only if that word did not denote a certain coolness: Perahia is never cool. A wonderful Bach recording of the sort that one will return to again and again.© TiVo
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Johann Sebastian Bach: The Complete Works for Keyboard, Vol. 8: Köthen, 1717-1723 - For Maria Barbara
Benjamin Alard
Classical - Released May 12, 2023 | harmonia mundi
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The new delivery of the complete works for keyboard of Johann Sebastian Bach (Volume 8), brought to us by harmonia mundi, and featuring Benjamin Alard on the harpsichord, clavichord, and organ, is centred around the composer’s work while he was with his first wife, Maria Barbara. Featuring 3 CDs, or 85 tracks in this digital version, it brings together a series of compositions for educational purposes. On the one hand the Inventions and Sinfonias, on which all apprentice pianists and harpsichordists have tried their hand, and, on the other hand, the six French Suites probably composed to perfect the musical skills of their eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann.They are “French” only in virtue of the apocryphal title which was given to them after Bach’s death. We find no trace of this mentioned on the original manuscripts. Bach's music also escapes strict classification, even if the influence of Couperin can be quite clearly perceived in this vast corpus, demonstrated by Benjamin Alard’s clever introduction of some Preludes by the French composer as an epigraph to the French Suites of Bach. Above all, these pieces are reminiscent of his own genius, with various influences intended to create a world belonging to the Cantor.Faithful to his organological research, here Benjamin Alard uses a pedal clavichord like that built by the French organ maker, Emile Jobin. The colour of this discreet instrument is simply bewitching. A sort of fruitiness is exuded, the full depth and subtlety of which can be savoured, notably in the Pedal-Exercitium, BWV 598 and in the transcription for keyboard of the famous Chaconne - Second Partita, initially composed for the violin. We also like the golden tones of the Couchet harpsichord from 1645, "restored" (modified later) by Blanchet in around 1720. We find the entirety of Benjamin Alard’s skill in this new recording; his science which illuminates complicated polyphony, his clean energy, and his curiosity for fascinating worlds of sound. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Bach's Virtuosos
Midori Seiler
Classical - Released April 14, 2023 | Berlin Classics
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Wer hat hier schlechte Laune
Max Raabe
Pop - Released October 14, 2022 | We Love Music
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Bach: The French Suites
Mahan Esfahani
Classical - Released October 6, 2023 | Hyperion
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Recordings of Bach's French Suites, not so named by the composer, are abundant, but this one made classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023. One draw may have been that it includes three suites not generally grouped with the French Suites on recordings; two of these are beset by textual problems, and one, BWV 822, is probably not by Bach at all (it comes down from a late 18th century manuscript that attributes it simply to "Bach"). Keyboardist Mahan Esfahani forthrightly declares that his motivation for including it was that he finds it charming, and indeed it is, but more important are the bold treatments of the canonical works here. Many fresh features have been added to Esfahani's usual thorny but gripping style. The most immediately apparent is that he uses a clavichord in five of the suites. This is certainly defensible in terms of 18th century practice, even if the clavichord would not have been taken into a church as it is here; it was a domestic instrument. The clavichord was a pandemic-era project for Esfahani, and it will be interesting to see how he develops its use in future Bach projects. It seems to fit well with the crunchy 18th century German tunings used here and with his usual inward but tough style. In the end, it simply adds more colors to the large variety that is always present in Esfahani's playing. The dance rhythms are there in these readings, but they're hardly the main thing. Esfahani also draws on a variety of textual sources for most of the pieces, with the result that listeners will be hearing French Suites that have never quite been heard before. However, this is always true with this adventurous player, whose fans will be delighted with this 2023 release.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Bach: Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069
Freiburger Barockorchester
Concertos - Released November 8, 2011 | harmonia mundi
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Choc de Classica
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Bach : Contemplation
Anne Queffélec
Classical - Released January 8, 2009 | Mirare
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Bach: Ouvertures-Suites
Ensemble Masques
Classical - Released June 3, 2022 | Alpha Classics
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The orchestral suite, sometimes simply called "overture" because of the imposing dimensions of its opening movement, enjoyed great popularity in the early eighteenth century, especially in central Germany. Bach had discovered the genre in his youth and cultivated it until his late period in Leipzig. This recording assembles his four "overture-suites", including the famous Suite No. 2, BWV 1067, which belongs among the late works. Numerous copying errors in the instrumental parts suggest that this piece was originally written a tone lower – in A minor – and therefore probably for a solo instrument other than the transverse flute: in the present recording, this first version, reconstructed from the clues mentioned above, is performed with solo oboe. "This is a work of austere beauty, in which contrapuntal skill and melancholic expression are combined in a highly original way with the carefully calculated dance rhythms", writes Peter Wollny in the accompanying booklet article. © Alpha Classics
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Bach Fragments: Organ Works Completed by Lorenzo Ghielmi
Lorenzo Ghielmi
Classical - Released November 10, 2023 | Passacaille
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Bach: The Orchestral Suites
Johann Sebastian Bach
Symphonies - Released October 29, 2010 | Berlin Classics
German historical-instrument group Concerto Köln came on the scene in the 1980s and achieved immediate popularity with lively performances of Baroque music, free from the radical shock of Harnoncourt or the sometimes precious quality of English groups. It has done fine recordings of Baroque opera with a variety of conductors and was ahead of the curve in the rediscovery of German and Italian repertories of the 18th century. In this dual-CD release commemorating its 25th anniversary as a group, Concerto Köln seems to be trying to keep its edge. No leader is listed, but violinist Sylvie Kraus and onetime music director Martin Sandhoff are credited with the "Gesamtkonzeption." It's an unusual overall conception, focused on the dance component of Bach's orchestral suites. The booklet notes by Kraus (in English, German, and French) support this idea elegantly, pointing to the little-known fact that Bach, as a schoolboy at the St. Michaels Monastery School in Lüneberg, had a French dance teacher who was a student of the great Lully himself. Your reaction to the musical results may depend on how far you're willing to go in accepting the whole concept. Many of the minuets are taken at a blistering pace in an attempt to keep the strong forward momentum going, and they come out sounding like the 18th century equivalent of dance aerobics music. The big overtures, on the other hand, represent Concerto Köln at its best, with lively phrasing applied at every juncture, and the famous Air on a G string (track 2), from the Suite No. 3 for orchestra in D major, BWV 1068, is taken quite slowly and has a lovely floating quality (apparently it is exempt from the dance concept). The disc is nicely engineered, and the small group, even with rotating membership in the different suites, achieves a very alert ensemble. Try the minuets and bourrées, and see how you like them.© TiVo
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Cantata : Yet Can I Hear... (Handel, Bach, Vivaldi...)
Bejun Mehta
Classical - Released March 16, 2018 | PentaTone
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5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
For the benefit of any Qobuz readers who might be offended that the Bach cantata Ich habe genug is sung here by a counter-tenor in the soprano register (rather than the normal bass), we want to point out two things: first, in the baroque era, music would be rewritten at the drop of a hat to fit the musicians who were available at a given time; and, secondly, this particular transposition was made by the Cantor himself! And what's more, he actually thoroughly revised two works... The short cantata Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde was for a long time attributed to Bach before credit was finally given to its author Melchior Hoffmann: but it is testament to the work's tremendous quality that the mix-up was possible: its originality certainly gives the listener pause for thought. For one thing, the aria contains a glockenspiel section! Counter-tenor Bejun Mehta continues his exploration of the world of the baroque cantata with the superb Pianti, sospiri e dimandar mercede by Vivaldi, which brims over with invention and harmonic and melodic surprises. Handel's cantatas, on the other hand, were more directly written for amateur audiences, and therefore somewhat easier musically: whereas Bach never had to worry about selling his scores, Handel was very much preoccupied by sales! Berlin's Akademie für alte Musik provides a fervent accompaniment, and without a conductor, as they know this music like the back of their hands. © SM/Qobuz
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Minstrel in the Gallery
Jethro Tull
Rock - Released September 1, 1975 | Rhino
Minstrel in the Gallery was Tull's most artistically successful and elaborately produced album since Thick as a Brick and harked back to that album with the inclusion of a 17-minute extended piece ("Baker Street Muse"). Although English folk elements abound, this is really a hard rock showcase on a par with -- and perhaps even more aggressive than -- anything on Aqualung. The title track is a superb showcase for the group, freely mixing folk melodies, lilting flute passages, and archaic, pre-Elizabethan feel, and the fiercest electric rock in the group's history -- parts of it do recall phrases from A Passion Play, but all of it is more successful than anything on War Child. Martin Barre's attack on the guitar is as ferocious as anything in the band's history, and John Evan's organ matches him amp for amp, while Barriemore Barlow and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond hold things together in a furious performance. Anderson's flair for drama and melody come to the fore in "Cold Wind to Valhalla," and "Requiem" is the loveliest acoustic number in Tull's repertory, featuring nothing but Anderson's singing and acoustic guitar, Hammond-Hammond's bass, and a small string orchestra backing them. "Nothing at All" isn't far behind for sheer, unabashed beauty, but "Black Satin Dancer" is a little too cacophonous for its own good. "Baker Street Muse" recalls Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, not only in its structure but a few passages; at slightly under 17 minutes, it's a tad more manageable than either of its conceptual predecessors, and it has all of their virtues, freely overlapping hard rock and folk material, classical arrangements (some of the most tasteful string playing on a Tull recording), surprising tempo shifts, and complex stream-of-consciousness lyrics (some of which clearly veer into self-parody) into a compelling whole.© Bruce Eder /TiVo
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