Bach: Johann Sebastian Bach

A world renowned international soloist and harpsichord teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Francesco Corti embarks a collaboration with Arcana with a musical journey through the manuscripts of the Bach family, beginning with the two books belonging to Johann Sebastian’s brother (the Möller and Andreas Bach manuscripts) and leading to the famous Büchleine for Anna Magdalena and Wilhelm Friedemann. The programme presents three major keyboard works by J. S. Bach (BWV 815, 992 and 998) that are preserved in ‘domestic’ copies.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the two birthday cantatas BWV 36a and 66a for the Köthen court in 1725 and 1718. Almost three-hundred years later, they were resounded again for the first time, in a reconstruction by Alexander Ferdinand Grychtolik. The present disc records the concert given at the Köthener Bachfesttage 2012.

Among the current sensations of the historical-performance scene is I Barocchisti, from Italian Switzerland, and its director and harpsichordist Diego Fasolis. The group released performances of Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos on a pair of discs, with the second disc also containing the Concerto for flute, violin, harpsichord, strings, and continuo in A minor, BWV 1044. Whatever may be said for breaking up the set in other situations, this radical approach is best appreciated as a whole. Part of the charm of these classic works is their differentiation, somewhat obscured in modern performances (and even in some on historical instruments) that use a large string section.

Baroque cellist Tanya Tomkins makes an indelible impression with her virtuosic recording of J S Bach’s Cello Suites. Tanya Tomkins, one of the foremost cellists of her generation, makes an indelible impression scaling the pinnacle of the cello repertoire, J S Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. Familiar to record collectors through her appearance on Avie’s release of Kummer’s Cello Duets, and as a member of the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio’s Mendelssohn and Schumann recordings, Tanya is equally at home in an intimate house concert setting or anchoring the cello section of the San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Le grand Janos Starker a enregistré les Suites de Bach à plusieurs reprises. Rien d'étonnant à cela puisqu'elles sont le bréviaire de tout violoncelliste. A chaque fois son engagement est total et sa réalisation à l'image de son art sobre, à la limite de l'ascétisme. Nul débordement romantique sous son archet, mais une lecture littérale avec beaucoup de respect voire de distance. Une option radicale qui peut étonner mais que nous trouvons tout à fait fascinante.

Since the beginning of it’s existence in 1960, the Slovak Chamber Orchestra has developed into one of the most popular ensembles in the field of classical music in Slovakia, and into one of the principal representatives of the Slovak interpretation art abroad. The idea of founding a string orchestra has risen in the mind of Prof. Bohdan Warchal in the late 50-s, while still a member of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.

The issue of authenticity of Bach’s so-called lute music is one that continues to perplex artists today; most of the recordings of Bach’s lute music range from transcriptions of the cello and certain solo violin suites to other more capriciously chosen works that are made to “fit” the instrument. Indeed, one of the best (and most popular) of such collections, that by Nigel North (Linn Records, “Bach on the Lute”), consists entirely of these violin and cello works, albeit with the not-uncommon idea of such works finding their way into the repertoire of all sorts of related instruments.