Amigos

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

We're talking the mid-1950s when Germany was working her fingers to the bone and trying to reconcile herself with a huge collective guilt. Musical standards were uncommonly high and DG's chosen selections attest to the highest levels of care and devotion. Rehearsals were plentiful, stretching to 22 hours spread over six days for Igor Markevitch's Berlin Philharmonic "Symphonie fantastique". Few versions have married temperament and formal argument as successfully, the sudden rushes of adrenalin used to intensify rather than distort Berlioz's endless melodic lines. Some of these recordings have been hugely influential, Furtwängler's passionate yet malleable Schumann No. 4 for example. Jochum's Mozart is supplemented by his deeply devotional and occasionally raging Bruckner Ninth, while in addition to Berlioz, Markevitch offers us perceptive early Schubert (the sorrowful opening of the Fourth is unforgettable) and Bizet's witty suite "Jeux d'entfants". There's a slowbreathing Beethoven Second under Kurt Sanderling, a stolid pairing of Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 and a beefy Brahms Second from Karl Böhm, and a thoughtful trio of Haydn symphonies (Nos. 44, 94 and 98) under Ferenc Fricsay. But the gem of the collection, where pondered musicianship and painstaking preparation reach the same exalted goal, is Fritz Lehmann's selection from Schubert's "Rosamunde" . . . It's style through and through – as music, performance and presentation, a superb production, hopefully to be followed by a second volume.

Record Review / Rob Cowan, Independent (London)