Joshua Rifkin
Pianist, conductor, and musicologist Joshua Rifkin enjoys a status of high authority and expertise in four distinct genres -- Johann Sebastian Bach, the Beatles, sacred vocal music of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, and in piano ragtime of the early twentieth century. Rifkin's initial line of musical study was as a composer; he was a student of Vincent Persichetti at the Juilliard School, from which he earned a degree in 1964. He also continued his education well after his career as a recording artist started, studying at New York University, the University of Göttingen, and at Princeton where he took a class under Milton Babbitt.
Rifkin first made an impact in 1965 when Elektra Records impresario Jac Holzman asked for help in realizing a crazy idea of his, an album of Beatles hits as restated in the musical style of Baroque composers. Witty and unique, the resulting Nonesuch album The Baroque Beatles Book swiftly became a best seller, featuring Rifkin's clever take on Beatles standards such as "Help!" and "Please Please Me," and it was widely imitated. In 1970, Rifkin began an extensive project of recording Scott Joplin's rags for Nonesuch that stretched into 1974 and resulted in three LP volumes. With the release of the hit movie The Sting featuring Joplin's music, theretofore mainly known to early jazz buffs, Rifkin's recordings of the piano originals were thrust into prominence and also became best sellers. So enormously popular were Rifkin's efforts on behalf of Joplin that for the rest of the 1970s his was a household name among classical music fans as well as a cross-section of popular music listeners. Rifkin ended the 1970s on a high note with Digital Ragtime, an album for EMI featuring the first digital recordings of ragtime piano music; it also proved very popular.
Despite the success Rifkin enjoyed as an interpreter of Joplin's piano rags, he did not lose sight of his strong interest and expertise in Baroque vocal music. In 1982, Rifkin recorded for his edition of Johann Sebastian Bach's B minor Mass for Nonesuch that proved a highly controversial sensation; it employs only one singer per part in the chorus rather than the sizeable choral forces that then proved the standard in modern performances of the work. Although Rifkin's proposal of this idea was contested in many quarters at the time, it has since been widely adapted among groups that perform Bach's music in period style. Rifkin has gone on to record several of Bach's cantatas, Haydn symphonies, and works of Antoine Busnois; in 2004 he published a scholarly monograph on the music of the Beatles.
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Discography
16 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Scott Joplin Piano Rags
Classical - Released by Nonesuch on Oct 8, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope
Cappella Pratensis, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by Cappella Pratensis on Oct 29, 2010
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: 14 Concertos (for Mandolin, Flute, Trumpet, Violin, etc.)
Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood, New London Consort, Philip Pickett, Bach Ensemble, The, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Cantatas Nos. 8, 78 & 99
Joshua Rifkin, Julianne Baird, Allan Fast, Frank Kelly, Jan Opalach, Bach Ensemble, The
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jun 28, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano by Scott Joplin Joshua Rifkin Piano
Jazz - Released by ProExport Digital on Jan 10, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Bach, J.S.: 6 Favourite Cantatas
Bach Ensemble, The, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scott Joplin: Digital Ragtime/Wall Street Rag (Remastered)
Joshua Rifkin, Southland Stingers, Ralph Grierson
Pop - Released by EMI Classics on Jan 1, 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cantates (Johann Sebastian Bach)
Classical - Released by Dorian on Jun 5, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rags & Tangos
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Oct 1, 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Cantatas BWV 106, 131, 99, 56, 82 & 158
Bach Ensemble, The, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi, Telemann, Ernst & Bach, J.S.: Violin Concertos
Stanley Ritchie, Bach Ensemble, The, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Dec 3, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gottschalk/Joplin/Gershwin
Leonard Pennario, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by EMI Classics on Jan 1, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart (A Homage) - 250 Year Celebration, Vol. 1 (Symphonies)
Concerto Köln, Cappella Coloniensis, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Werner Ehrhardt, Joshua Rifkin, Hans Graf
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on Jan 1, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart, W.A.: Serenade No. 9, "Posthorn" / Symphony No. 32
Cappella Coloniensis, Christoph Brandt-Lindenbaum, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on Jan 1, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonies n°31 & 72
Cappella Coloniensis, Joshua Rifkin
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on Mar 3, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo