Art Majeur

Bach's organ music towers above so much else in the Western canon, that it needs no comment. But as one who enjoys going deeply into a composer for sever days, I found this set superb. I've listened to the entire set from start to finish several times; there's simply nothing else I've ever heard that compares. I'm not an organist, so I can't speak to the technical details of the performance - but Marie-Claire Alain, to my ear, delivers the perfect match of restraint, virtuosity, and grandeur for this work.

With the season 2005/06 Deutsche Grammophon launched its visionary initiative for recording and releasing orchestral concert performances - the DG Concerts series collaborates with some of the best orchestras around the globe, making their most acclaimed concert performances available to music lovers worldwide via digital download.

Composed at the Court of Coethen (1718 -1723), these six sonatas are a testament to a boundless imagination and an incredible creative power. J.S. Bach excels in the Ars combinatoria where thematic responses with two or three voices flourish, and cultivates with tenderness the art of moving and convincing in his slow movements.

Une compilation d'oeuvres du grand Jean-Sbastien Bach pour son pouse. Un incontournable de toute bibliothque musicale ! Cadeau Anna Magdalena Bach de son poux Jean-Sbastien, ce petit livre deviendra vite un album familial. Leurs fils (Johann Christian, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Gottfried Heinrich) l'utilisent galement pour leurs essais de composition. Pour autant, ce livre est aussi ouvert aux autres compositeurs de l'poque. On y trouve des partitions pour clavier (principalement des menuets, marches et polonaises) mais aussi des chants et des chorals. Cet enregistrement est servi par certains des plus grands artistes actuels de l'art baroque rassembls autour du claveciniste Olivier Baumont : Anne Magout, Christine Plubeau, Aurlien Delage et Julien Chauvin.

Whilst Handel was renowned in his lifetime as a virtuoso organist, his art was based on improvisation. He left no developed oeuvre of keyboard pieces which would give us an idea of his full capabilities as an organist. His organ concertos are actually theatre pieces, developed by Handel to support his oratorio performances. Handel brought in an organ to act as continuo in the choruses and developed the idea of an organ concerto as a way of adding extra novelty. At the oratorios, the audience could not rely on novelty and virtuoso display from the latest Italian singers so Handel’s performances on the organ were a sort of substitute.

Another superlative Alpha production! Really! From the beautiful multiple Gainsborough reproductions through the astute notes and the vivid sound to the stunning performances, this really is another superlative Alpha product. Violinist Pablo Valetti and harpsichordist Céline Frisch are fluent and soulful players with an empathetic sense of ensemble. In these Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, Valetti and Frisch's warm tone, supple tempos, and expressive lines make Bach's music sound as virtuosic as ever, but more lyrical than usual. Alpha's recording is close and detailed and real, capturing the sound of the air in the room.

The ensemble Café Zimmermann, lead by violinist Pablo Valetti, is one of the new breed of Baroque groups offering lean, high-energy performances on historical instruments. The name refers to a Leipzig coffeehouse where Bach's Collegium Musicum instrumental ensemble might have performed in the 18th century. Imagined in that setting, the one-instrument-per-part performance here is plausible, although evidence that such performances occurred in Bach's time does not indicate that such performances were desirable. Bach himself requested an orchestra of 24 players from the Leipzig city council, and a piece like the Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, echoes French ensembles of that size.