Bach 2020

When his first album with Bach arias was released by Sony Classical in early 2019, the young Dutch countertenor Maarten Engeltjes received much praise for the "enchanting character" (opera glasses) of his voice. Now the master pupil of the counter legend Michael Chance sings three famous cantatas by J.S. Bach: Ich habe genug, BWV 82, Ich will den Kreuzstab gern tragen, BWV 56 (both are actually really excellent pieces for baritone) - and Vergnügte Ruh, beliebtte Seelenlust, BWV 170. Once again he is accompanied with great sensitivity by the Ensemble PRJCT Amsterdam.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Seven composers from four continents and three centuries, together with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach: this is the extraordinary repertoire with which the Lux Nova Duo presents itself on its new GENUIN CD. Lydia Schmidl (accordion) and Jorge Paz Verastegui (guitar) do not attempt saintly reverence, but search, sense, explore Bach and echoes of his music with joy and virtuosity in a wide range of works. There are Rameau's exquisite harmonies, a graceful and witty homage by Shostakovich, South American spices by Alejandro Núñez Allauca, exciting fragments by Tristan Xavier Köster and much more. A CD for discoverers and adventurers!

Recognized as among our most eloquent and insightful interpreters of the major keyboard works of Bach and Beethoven, pianist Andrew Rangell has drawn acclaim for a variety of recordings, ranging from the music of Sweelinck, Farnaby, and Gibbons to that of Janacek, Enescu, Nielsen, Bartok, Valen, Christian Wolff, and many others. The present recording, newly documenting Mr. Rangell’s long and loving exploration of Bach, is also something of a counterpart to his 2-album 2017 release, A Bouquet of Beethoven.

Beatles Love Bach is a wayto thank you to those who awakened a parallel path of my academic musical life: Johann Sebastian Bach and the Beatles. This CD is a dream that comes true after so many years: to record this music in the first sources of inspiration of the Liverpool's geniuses. The same organ that accompanied Paul McCartney - at St Barnabas Church in Liverpool, when he sang as a chorister at 1954-1956 reverberates in this record, uniting the emotion of sounding together the great idols of my adolescence and musical life as a whole.