Classical Music 2000

With various record labels compiling complete works to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of Bach, EMI's more accessible approach is this luxurious anthology of the Baroque master's sacred music. Over two and a half hours, this program encompasses the grand scale of the Magnificat in D (BWV 243) and Missa Brevis in A (BWV 234). Between these are scared cantatas, the very popular choral Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140) contrasting with sensitive solo vocal writing in Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (BWV 12); motets; arias; and an organ prelude and fugue. It's a well-balanced program, covering every aspect of Bach's church music except the Passions.

David Atherton made a fine reputation for himself as a contemporary music conductor back in his salad days with the London Sinfonietta, nowhere more so than in his three-disc (now two-CD) set of music by Kurt Weill. He certainly hasn’t lost his magic touch in the intervening years. These performances of the two symphonies sweep the (not very full) board. Swift, lean, incisive, and always exciting, Atherton reveals all of this music’s anger, irony, and bittersweet lyricism without a trace of histrionics or self-indulgence. Indeed, a certain coolness is part of the point too. And so in the marvelous Second Symphony, Atherton catches the neo-classical temper of its outer movements with impeccable wit and grace, making the passionate intensity of the magnificent central slow movement all the more shocking as a result.

A very different set than Teldec's Bach 2000. The Hanssler Bachakademie, supervised by Helmut Rilling, is not HIP (historic instruments performance). The orchestras are warm and lush (but not huge). The soloists are, in general, extraordinary. The tempos are sane. Hanssler has included fragments of some incomplete BWV's that are not included in the Teldec set; a minor plus but appealing. I found I preferred these traditional instruments and the daring using of forte-piano in place of harpsichord on a few of the recordings (flute sonatas). Highlights for me are The Well-Tempered Clavier Books 1 and 2, Musical Offering, Flute Sonatas, The Motets. I also found I prefer these Cantatas recordings to any other, including the new Koopman, Suzuki and the well-known Leonhart-Harnoncourt. While not the newest recordings, the sound is warmer which I prefer to the new state-of-the-art HIP recordings. Although most of the Cantatas are older recordings, much of the Hanssler Bachakademie edition is newly recorded for this project and the sound is consistent and excellent.

Jan Hanford, J.S. Bach Home Page

Karajan - The Complete EMI Recordings 1946-1984, Vol. 2: Opera & Vocal (72 CD)
72 CDs | APE, CUE, Log | Booklet | Complete Size: 15.8 GB | Rapidshare

For the first time ever EMI Classics are making available, in two handsome sets, the complete recordings that Karajan made for EMI between the years 1946 to 1984. The first set of 88 CDs comprises all the orchestral and concerto recordings and the second set, of 72 CDs, the Choral and Opera recordings. Both sets can be acquired at bargain prices, presenting a rare opportunity to add these historically important recordings to your collection. The last discs in each set (88 & 72 respectively) contain all the libretti, sung texts, a selection of photographs and a series of interviews with musicians who knew and worked with Karajan.

Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667 – 20 July 1752), also known as John Christopher Pepusch and Dr Pepusch, was a German-born composer who spent most of his working life in England. Pepusch was born in Berlin. At the age of 14, he was appointed to the Prussian court. About 1700, he settled in England where he was one of the founders, in 1726, of The Academy of Vocal Music, which around 1730/1 was renamed The Academy of Ancient Music. In Joseph Doane's Musical directory for the year 1794, the founding of the Academy is discussed; on page 76, Doane states that: In the year 1710 (memorable for Handel’s first appearance among us) a number of the most eminent composers and performers in London [agreed] to concert a plan of an Academy for the study and practice of Vocal and Instrumental Music, which was no sooner announced than it met the countenance and support of the principal persons of rank.

On February 24 1711, the curtain at the Haymarket theater went up for 'Rinaldo,' the first opera George Frideric Handel produced for London. It had a libretto by Giacomo Rossi, based on a somewhat mangled outline of Tasso's epic poem of the Crusades, 'Gerusalemme Liberata,' which had been prepared by impresario Aaron Hill with the aim of allowing for as many special machinery effects as possible. Handel clearly wanted to impress London, for his sparkling music contained liberal borrowings from some of his best recent scores. While many changes and cuts were made up to the time of Handel1s final revision in 1731, this recording attempts as much as possible to return to the version that would have been heard in the first London production.

Sebastian Knüpfer is yet another Baroque composer whose reputation and popularity have been overshadowed by J S Bach. Little of Knüpfer's music has previously been transcribed from its many manuscripts, let alone published. However, in his day Knüpfer was a respected and highly sought-after composer; his compositions were admired by his contemporaries and, according to his obituary, he 'composed quotations of the Psalms and other Biblical books with such sweetness and skilfulness that he delighted even the saddest hearts, and his name is spoken with admiration not only in Leipzig but also outside'.