Bach Orgelbüchlein

Old technology meets modern technology on this release from Germany's Oehms label, a top-notch Bach organ recording equally worth the consideration of the first-timer or those with large Bach collections. Featured is one of the monuments of central German organ-building, the Silbermann Organ at the Catholic Hofkirche in Dresden. The organ was dismantled during World War II but subsequently rebuilt and later thoroughly restored. It's a magnificent beast, with plenty of power and some unusual, highly evocative tone colors in the quieter registrations.

This fascinating set provides a refreshing window onto a much studied, much idolized, and oft performed master of composition, allowing many of his familiar works to appear in a new light, recognizable and yet transformed. Bach's music is often described as indestructible, in the sense that no matter how it is performed, or in whichever arrangement, it's essential spirit survives. Many of the transcriptions included here represent the work of contemporary, world-class performers bringing Bach's masterpieces into the repertoire of their own instruments or ensembles, thereby giving new timbres to the genius of Bach's contrapuntal lines.

German Brass is a brass ensemble, founded 1974 as Brass Quintet by Enrique Crespo, named "Deutsches Blechbläserquintett – Solobläser deutscher Spitzenorchester" ( German Brass Quintet - Soloists of German top level orchestras ) In 1985, to record the CD "Bach 300" (J.S. Bach born 1685) the group was extended to 10 performers and still makes music in this instrumentation. The group is well known as best performing professional brass ensemble in Germany. More than 20 CDs and 2 DVDs have been recorded to date. German Brass musicians are members of major German Symphony Orchestras and/or are Professors at university schools of music.

Ophelie Gaillard has made recently a deep impression with the Suites for cello solo by Jean-Sebastian Bach. On this new recording, dedicated to the Cantor of Leipzig, she gathered her close team from the Pulcinella Ensemble and invited some of the most talented soloists: Sandrine Piau, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Christophe Dumaux. This programme gives a vision of the most beautiful cantatas written by Jean-Sebastian Bach in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, interspersed with some of the masterpieces from the 'Schübler' Chorales and Orgelbüchlein. With a passion for Baroque music played on period instruments, Pulcinella is a group of virtuoso soloists, gathered in a chamber spirit around cellist Ophélie Gaillard.

If you prefer Bach on the piano served up in heaping Romantic portions, accompanied by dollops of creamy tone, tapered phrases and languishing tenutos, Edna Stern's ravishing pianism will turn your ears to jelly. …a disc that will cause unrepentant pianophiles to jump for joy while historically informed performance mavens duck for cover.

This set gathers the Bach recordings released by Michel Chapuis for the French label Valois (now Naive) between 1966 and 1970. These highly regarded recordings were reissued by Naive in 1999 and soon became unavailable again. Faultless registration, dramatic flair, dazzling technique and pinpoint clarity in counterpoint make these recordings a cornerstone of any Bach and organ discography. The booklet includes a detailed index by BWV numbers and another by alphabetical order of titles.

Recorded for Calliope between 1975 and 1991, André Isoir’s version of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach was an exceptional undertaking that received unanimous acclaim from press and public alike. La Dolce Volta here reissues this set, unavailable since 2008, on 15 CDs at a highly attractive price. These interpretations which have achieved legendary status for their magical touch and ornamentation, their supremely elegant and inward sculpting of phrases, are now enhanced by stylish new presentation (remastered sound, luxury packaging, recent interview with the artist, full details of the instruments).

Over the course of the last 12 years Simon Preston has been recording Bach’s organ music for DG, and while some of these discs have been released individually during that time, many are appearing here for the first time. More than that, some of the earlier recordings have been rejected in favour of more recent ones: I’m glad that his 1992 recording of the ‘Schubler’ Chorales (6/92) has been substituted by an altogether more relaxed and elegant version, recorded in late 1999, in which he not only seems more in sympathy with the music but also feels less inclined to treat it as the latest Olympic athletics event; BWV645 takes the best part of a minute longer in this new recording and benefits enormously from it. A total of 10 organs has been used (every one, as they say, a winner) and the booklet includes adequate historic information, specifications and photographs (although none of Preston’s registrations is detailed), as well as brief, rather basic notes and a somewhat superficial interview with Preston himself.