As many readers know, although Bach composed a number of violin concertos (and for other melody instruments), mostly during his years in Coethen (approximately 1717-1723), with respect to violin concertos, only the three represented here remain in their original form (Violin Concerto in A minor, BMV 1041; Violin Concerto in E major, BMV 1042; and the Double Violin Concerto in D Minor, BMV 1043). (The concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord in A minor, BMV 1044, not included here, also remains in its original form).
During the 1990s, Collegium Musicum 90 and Simon Standage released several volumes of Albinoni concertos, which proved popular with critics and public alike. The concertos were released as discs of single oboe concertos, double oboe concertos, and string concertos. In this re-issue on the Chaconne label, the concertos are presented in opus number order, showing the contrasting colours and tonalities of the concertos as they originally appeared.
Recorded in 1990 at Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead (London), this beautifully produced CD contains six lesser-known works for violin(s) by Germany’s most prolific 18th century composer, Georg Philipp Telemann, who was, during his lifetime, considerably more famous (and more in demand) than any of the Bach dynasty. But as Nicholas Anderson points out in his rather brief introduction to this music, “Telemann did not altogether avoid in his own music those features which he criticised in others; sometimes his harmonies seem sparse, his passagework perfunctory.” Telemann was a great musician, but the violin “seems to have been that in which he was least fluent”. It is also well-known that Telemann’s facility in composing has gained him a reputation for producing quantity rather than quality – a reputation which, on the whole, is undeserved.
Although not quite as well known as some of his other works, Bach's violin concertos contain some of the most beautiful music ever composed. While there are many performances of these concertos available, including some recent releases, the classic performances offered here, featuring the great Arthur Grumiaux on violin (and the great Hermann Krebbers on the double violin concerto), are far and away my favorites. I cannot recommend this disc more highly.
Trevor Pinnock directs The English Concert, a period-instrument orchestra with soloists Simon Standage, violin; Stephen Preston, flute & Anthony Pleeth, cello, in a performance of four concertos by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and a bonus concerto by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788).
This is a really great five-CD set. You get all of Bach's concertos except the Brandenburgs - which is a shame because Pinnock's Brandenburgs are terrific. Nonetheless, this remains an absolutely cracking collection of some of Bach's most enjoyable music in excellent performances. In the Harpsichord Concertos Pinnock is himself the soloist and shows why he is such a very well-liked and highly regarded musician. The music springs to life under his fingers (and under his direction) and many of these performances set new and enduring standards when first released in the early 1980s. They have informed much subsequent Bach playing and have worn extremely well themselves, sounding as fresh and involving as they did nearly 30 years ago. He is joined by other fine harpsichordists in the concerti for two, three and four harpsichords, (Kenneth Gilbert, Nicholas Kraemer and Lars Ulrich Mortensen) and the Concerto for Four Harpsichords in particular is an absolute joy.
The English Concert directed by the great Trevor Pinnock presents these three beautiful concerts of J. S. Bach where we can admire the contrapuntal genius of the great German genius. Excellent execution, great musicality and excellent sound, obviously. Listen to interpretations of Simon Standage on violin, David Reichenberg in oboe and Lisa Beznosiuk in the flute, surround us in the musical depth of these beautiful compositions. A real pleasure.
Deutsche Grammophon proudly presents 42 of its greatest ever recordings for violin, from its matchless catalogue of the finest violinists of the last 75 years. Fritz Kreisler began it all for the company by recording a series of his own compositions and arrangements. 31 violinists grace 111 The Violin, with recordings from the early 1900s to 2012.
The box contains all of the Bach recordings made by Christopher Hogwoood and the Academy of Ancient Music for the L'Oiseau Lyre label on Decca. The whole set is compact and takes up little room on a storage shelf. The spine measures just two and a quarter inches thick. The box is a clam shell box. Each album is contained in a card sleeve. And the front of each sleeve has the same picture as the outer box. The back of each sleeve has the information about the album content.
Christopher Hogwood is an irreplaceable figure in a marvelous period that spans over thirty years, the time of the rebirth of the ancient and baroque repertoire: a time of so-called performances with original instruments, as they were hastily defined in an urge to simplify. A period in which, amid the initial skepticism of the critics and their subsequent appreciation, important artists and philologists restored to music lovers the joy of rediscovering masterpieces that had often been forgotten and performing practices that had long been abandoned, recreating enormous interest in a repertoire that is still continuing to reveal the existence of great forgotten musical treasures.