Narrow my search:
From
CD$28.69
Cantatas - 24 Highlights
Amsterdam Baroque Choir
Classical - Released May 4, 2009 | Challenge Classics
Bach: Lutherkantaten, Vol. 1 (BWV 62, 36, 91)
Christoph Spering
Classical - Released October 28, 2016 | deutsche harmonia mundi
Booklet
Download not available
From
CD$10.49
J.S. Bach: Adventskantaten
Philippe Herreweghe
Classical - Released August 1, 1997 | harmonia mundi
Bach: Cantatas, Vol. 28
Lenneke Ruiten
Classical - Released April 1, 2013 | SDG
Booklet
Download not available
This is the 28th and final album in British conductor John Eliot Gardiner's cycle of Bach's cantatas with his Monteverdi Choir, and it comes with a two-page list of financial backers akin to the subscribers who might have financed secular music in an earlier day. The music was recorded, live with later tweaking, at St. Giles Cripplegate church, London, after the choir had completed its tour of continental churches, performing appropriate cantatas for the day or week of the concert (this one was not performed during Ascension Week, but it's hard to detect any loss of the immediacy of music-making that has been the series' trademark). The series doesn't exactly end with a bang, for the so-called Himmelfahrtsoratorium, Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11, is added to three cantatas; this recitative-heavy little oratorio, included because of its liturgical link to the cantatas (all the music was intended for the Feast of the Ascension), is rarely performed. But Gardiner and company show no evidence of flagging energy; the choruses of the cantatas depicting Christ's ascent into heaven are exuberant; Gardiner's warm humanistic tone is in evidence throughout; and the booklet comes with a fine installment of Gardiner's strikingly detailed engagement with the texts of the cantatas and Bach's response to them. A nice feature of this installment is that the soloists in a sense come full circle; bass Dietrich Henschel was featured in some of the earliest concerts in the project, while the other three soloists are new. It is safe to say that they will be feeling the influence of Gardiner's achievement throughout their careers. © TiVo
This is the 28th and final album in British conductor John Eliot Gardiner's cycle of Bach's cantatas with his Monteverdi Choir, and it comes with a two-page list of financial backers akin to the subscribers who might have financed secular music in an earlier day. The music was recorded, live with later tweaking, at St. Giles Cripplegate church, London, after the choir had completed its tour of continental churches, performing appropriate cantatas for the day or week of the concert (this one was not performed during Ascension Week, but it's hard to detect any loss of the immediacy of music-making that has been the series' trademark). The series doesn't exactly end with a bang, for the so-called Himmelfahrtsoratorium, Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11, is added to three cantatas; this recitative-heavy little oratorio, included because of its liturgical link to the cantatas (all the music was intended for the Feast of the Ascension), is rarely performed. But Gardiner and company show no evidence of flagging energy; the choruses of the cantatas depicting Christ's ascent into heaven are exuberant; Gardiner's warm humanistic tone is in evidence throughout; and the booklet comes with a fine installment of Gardiner's strikingly detailed engagement with the texts of the cantatas and Bach's response to them. A nice feature of this installment is that the soloists in a sense come full circle; bass Dietrich Henschel was featured in some of the earliest concerts in the project, while the other three soloists are new. It is safe to say that they will be feeling the influence of Gardiner's achievement throughout their careers. © TiVo
From
HI-RES$21.09
CD$18.09
Bach Generations
Albrecht Mayer
Classical - Released August 4, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Hi-Res
Booklet
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
From
HI-RES$19.89
CD$17.19
Bach: Violin Concertos
Leonidas Kavakos
Classical - Released March 29, 2024 | Sony Classical
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
Trinitatis: Bach Cantatas
Damien Guillon
Classical - Released March 31, 2023 | Alpha Classics
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.09
CD$18.09
Johann Sebastian Bach : The French Suites
Murray Perahia
Classical - Released October 6, 2016 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or -
Gramophone Award -
Gramophone: Recording of the Month -
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
From
HI-RES$37.47
CD$29.97
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
Hi-Res
Booklet
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
From
HI-RES$17.99
CD$13.49
Bach's Virtuosos
Midori Seiler
Classical - Released April 14, 2023 | Berlin Classics
Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$66.69
CD$60.09
Bach: The French Suites
Mahan Esfahani
Classical - Released October 6, 2023 | Hyperion
Hi-Res
Booklet
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
From
HI-RES$14.49
CD$10.49
Bach: Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069
Freiburger Barockorchester
Concertos - Released November 8, 2011 | harmonia mundi
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Choc de Classica
From
HI-RES$10.14$14.49(30%)
CD$7.34$10.49(30%)
Bach : Contemplation
Anne Queffélec
Classical - Released January 8, 2009 | Mirare
Hi-Res
Booklets
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99
Bach: Ouvertures-Suites
Ensemble Masques
Classical - Released June 3, 2022 | Alpha Classics
Hi-Res
Booklet
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
From
HI-RES$16.59
CD$14.39
Bach Fragments: Organ Works Completed by Lorenzo Ghielmi
Lorenzo Ghielmi
Classical - Released November 10, 2023 | Passacaille
Hi-Res
Booklet
From
CD$13.49
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
From
HI-RES$15.56
CD$12.45
Cantata : Yet Can I Hear... (Handel, Bach, Vivaldi...)
Bejun Mehta
Classical - Released March 16, 2018 | PentaTone
Hi-Res
Booklet
Distinctions
Diapason d'or -
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
From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69
Bach Mirror
Thomas Enhco
Classical - Released September 17, 2021 | Masterworks
Hi-Res
From
CD$15.69
Hush
Yo-Yo Ma
Classical - Released January 1, 1992 | Sony Classical
A surprisingly good collaboration from two virtuosos of their given instruments. Bobby McFerrin, the master of the voice, and Yo-yo Ma, the master of the cello, combined to perform various pieces, from classical, traditional, and contemporary classical sectors. Some of the McFerrin compositions are quite amazing simply as compositions to begin with, but when the cello and vocal performances are added, they become something even more exciting. More than likely, the main highlight on the album is Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee," which is performed on a dual line by both musicians and allows an ample chance to note the amazing virtuosity of McFerrin, once you can distinguish the voice from the cello (yes, they follow the lines that close). For any fan of either musician, it's a wonderful find of an album.© Adam Greenberg /TiVo
Suppose you have a more precise idea of what you want. If you are searching for the album "Bad" by Michael Jackson, type michael jackson bad. The album in question will be displayed at the top, as it is the most relevant.
By default, search results are sorted in order of relevance. The drop-down menu to the right of "Sort by" allows you to display the results in the desired order.