This is a unique collection of largely unknown compositions of the Bach family, the largest and most incredibly talented musical family of all time. For nearly two hundred years, the Bach family dedicated themselves to singing God’s praises in music. Helmuth Rilling, who has made the works of J S Bach and his family his life work, performs these pieces with delicacy, energy and intelligence.
The Six Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) are considered by musicians, critics and audiences alike among the finest musical compositions of the baroque era. Bach presented the concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg, Christian Ludwig, in Berlin, March 24, 1721, with the hopes some patronage would come his way. The music was preserved in the Brandenburg archives, and when rediscovered in the 19th century became some of the most beloved music of all time. Beloved is the operative word in this re-release of the masterpieces in the hands of Jeanne Lamon and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.
Bachs Passions and other great choral works in performances with the Staatskapelle Dresden under the masterly direction of Peter Schreier who also sings the role of the Evangelist. Schreiers aim in Bach interpretation is to bring new lightness without following the full dictates of authentic performance, and in this he succeeds superbly. The recording is first rate, with the choral forces well separated.
Maria João Pires “shapes and colours every phrase, and with immaculate taste, and she makes sure the phrases end as eloquently as they begin,” wrote Gramophone in 1974. “She conveys not just the details but the relevance of every note to the whole … Best of all, she communicates everything she has discovered about the music, and it is worth having.” This Portuguese pupil of Wilhelm Kempff, Pires was one of the artists who defined the Erato label in the 1970s and 1980s. This 5-CD box gathers together the recordings she made over the period from 1976 to 1985 and it reflects the consistent focus of her repertoire, with its special emphasis on Austro-German composers of the Classical and early-Romantic periods. Embracing solo works, piano duets and concertos, it contains works by Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven, but also by Bach and Chopin.
Johann Ludwig Krebs (Buttelstedt, 12 October 1713 – Altenburg, 1 January 1780) was a favourite pupil of the great J.S. Bach (who regarded him particularly highly, punning on their two surnames declaring Krebs ‘was the only crayfish in his stream’) and a supremely talented inheritor of the composer–organist tradition of the Northern European Baroque. As a member of the last generation of these musicians, he lived in a time of marked shifts in taste, during the rise of the empfindsamer (sensitive) style, with its preference for balance and grace over the high baroque’s interwoven contrapuntal lines and chromatic harmony.
Like the Brandenburg Concertos and other instrumental works of Johann Sebastian Bach, the four Orchestral Suites are available in mainstream and period versions, and listeners have a variety of valid interpretations to explore. This 2019 release by Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano definitely belongs to the period category, and fans of original instrumentation and researched historical practices will find this album not only true to Baroque style but also as robust and energetic as any performance on modern instruments.
It is possible to have a lot of fun with this CD. Let me explain. I was sipping a glass of Pinot Grigiot with a very good friend; she has listened to Sebastian since she was six. There can be few nooks and crannies of his repertoire that she has not explored Ц including the cantatas. I slipped this CD into the player and said laconically 'What do you think of this new recording of BachТs СUns ist ein Kind geboren?' By the time we got to the second chorus, she was enthusiastic; at the beautiful alto aria, she was ecstatic.