English Bach Festival Baroque Orchestra

The English harpsichordist and conductor, Ivor Bolton, was educated at Clare College and the Royal College of Music, followed by a year at the National Opera Studio which coincided with his appointment as conductor of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford.

The Brazilian pianist, Jean Louis Steuerman, was born in into a musical family. He began his studies at the age of four and made his debut with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra when he was just fourteen (Rio de Janero, September 15, 1963). He first came to Europe after winning a scholarship to the Naples Conservatory in 1967. In 1972 he won the 2nd Prize at the J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig and quickly gained recognition throughout Europe as a soloist and recitalist.

John Eliot Gardiner is one of the leading conductors in the active authentic performances movement in England, performing Baroque music but also extending his range into later repertoire. He first conducted at the age of 15, and after finishing school he studied at King's College, Cambridge. While still an undergraduate, he conducted the combined Oxford and Cambridge Singers on a 1964 tour of the Middle East and founded the Monteverdi Choir, which has consistently performed on his recordings since.

George Frideric Handel - Theodora [BluRay Untouched]
Ivor Bolton / Freiburger Barockorchester / Salzburger Bachchor
MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p, 1.78:1 | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, LPCM 2.0 @ 24Bit/48kHz
Label/Cat#: Unitel Classica # 705804 | Country/Year: Europe 2011 | Size: 46,72 GB | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Opera, HiDef

The cast is wonderfully voiced, and the orchestra and chorus sound marvelous, and really that's all that matters in the long run. Not that many people are all that familiar with Theodora, despite Sellars' sensational production of a few years ago, and hopefully this new Blu-ray can help bring this beautiful piece to a wider audience. Highly recommended.

Angela Hewitt is a highly esteemed pianist, particularly noted as a Bach performer, but accomplished in an exceptionally large repertory that embraces all eras of keyboard music. The daughter of an organist, Hewitt began to study piano at age three, making a public debut at the age of four, winning a scholarship at six, and eventually adding studies in ballet, singing, violin, and recorder.

The St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, (German: Matthäus-Passion), is a musical composition written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). It sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew to music, with interspersed chorales and arias. It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of classical sacred music...

George Frideric Handel - Theodora [HiRes FLAC]
Ivor Bolton / Freiburger Barockorchester / Salzburger Bachchor
LPCM 2.0 @ 24Bit/48kHz ripped to FLAC | Size: 1,50 GB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Unitel Classica # 705804 | Country/Year: Europe 2011
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Opera, HiDef

The cast is wonderfully voiced, and the orchestra and chorus sound marvelous, and really that's all that matters in the long run. Not that many people are all that familiar with Theodora, despite Sellars' sensational production of a few years ago, and hopefully this new Blu-ray can help bring this beautiful piece to a wider audience. Highly recommended.

Gavrilov is a pianist of outstanding virtuosity and power. In 1974 Melodiya recorded the 1st Tchaikovsky-concerto at the pricewinner concert of the Tchaikovsky competition together with a live solo recital. 1976 a studio recording of the 3rd Rachmaninoff concerto followed. From 1977 to 1989 he worked exclusively for EMI. From that time dates the legendary recording of the Chopin-Etudes and many other works, notably from Chopin, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and J.S. Bach. From 1991 to 1993 he recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, where Gavrilov, who among new works keeps his core repertoire, also duplicated some works already recorded for EMI. A number of projects with many Gavrilov-premieres was no more realized, Bach's English Suites, the complete Beethoven piano concerti, the Choral Fantasie and the Diabelli Variations, as well as more vague plans with works by Liszt (Etudes d'execution transcendante, Paganini-Etudes), Ravels complete works for piano solo and with orchestra, the piano concertos of Grieg und Schumann and Benjamin Brittens Golden Vanity. In 2009 a number of new DVD-recordings is planned for release.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lots of other groups than the ones Bach would have known have decided they wanted a piece of him, from Stokowski's Philadelphia Orchestra to recorder consorts, brass groups, and even teams of electronic musicians. All these settings involve a degree of compromise. A string quartet, for example, brings a grammar of articulation to Bach that may give him a disagreeable accent. This project, originating in Russia, offers something of a middle ground for listeners who may enjoy the sound of Bach played by a contemporary ensemble: it has been carefully done so as to keep the structures of the Goldberg Variations front and center, with no more variety of texture than they would receive on a piano. Arranger Andrei Eshpai, whose career as a composer dates back into the Soviet era, chooses the combination of two oboes, an English horn, and a bassoon for his wind quartet – all double reeds.