Rachel Podger,breconbaroque J.s.bach

Violinst Rachel Podger presents the first recording of Bach's Cello Suites on violin. Bach had a habit of recycling his own compositions for different instruments and different uses. The examples are endless; concertos appearing as sinfonias in cantatas, or concertos for violins turned into harpsichord concertos. Podger, who has spent a fair bit of time coaching cellists, both modern and baroque alike, found herself playing along to demonstrate various points. ''I started catching myself playing some of the movements I particularly loved while warming up, and realizing that it was actually possible to play them on the violin, and to find a special expressive vocabulary at the higher pitch.''

The Mass in B Minor, hailed in 1818 as the “greatest musical composition of all times and all cultures” by its first publisher, Hans-Georg Nägeli of Zurich, is today revered as one of the greatest works in the history of classical music. Not only has the composition substantially shaped the contemporary relevance of Johann Sebastian Bach, but it also underpins his standing as a pre-eminent artist of universal appeal.

For once, a recitative is the focus of a cantata. In BWV 47, the opening chorus, two arias, and the final chorale are grouped around the central statement "Mankind is dirt, stench, earth and ashes," which can hardly be surpassed in clarity. It takes a soloist with a powerful voice and experience of life to get the message across credibly!

Blandine Verlet, a noted French harpsichordist, studied with Ruggiero Gerlin and Ralph Kirkpatrick. She began recording in the late 1970s for Philips, switching to the Astree label in the 1990s. Her recordings range from J.S. Bach's keyboard works to Froberger to lesser known composers such as Louis Couperin and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre. Her second recording of the Goldberg Variations, in 1992, has been called "one of the finest harpsichord versions in the catalog." With violinist Gerard Poulet she has recorded early violin sonatas by Mozart, using the older Baroque keyboard instruments rather than a fortepiano or modern piano. Verlet has also worked with flutist Stephen Preston and viola da gambist Jordi Savall. Her playing is noted for her control and restraint in not letting emotion carry her away.

Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (Dearest Jesus, my desire), BWV 32, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the dialogue cantata (Concerto in Dialogo) in Leipzig for the first Sunday after Epiphany and first performed it on 13 January 1726 as part of his third cantata cycle.

Bach im Fluss is a thematic collage of selected movements from cantatas and instrumental works compiled by Arthur Godel and Rudolf Lutz.

Very few conductors have recorded as much Bach as Karl Richter and none can lay a stronger claim to a legacy based on championing the master. Richter's reverence for Bach is evinced by the simplicity, splendor, and grandeur with which he consistently imbued his performances exemplified here by these landmark recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites. In Archiv's original-image bit-processing remastered transfers as well, the sound is better than ever. This is cornerstone Bach that should not be missed.

Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) ‒ a classical work for our times. Indeed, his faith was never of the bleak, incessantly penitential kind, but cheerful, reconciled and trusting, and it was in this spirit that he composed his sacred works, too. (Georg August Griesinger on Joseph Haydn, 1810).