Bach The Musical Offering

Seven different organs from the Swiss firm of Metzler carry the weight of the project, which is where Herrick's consistency begins. Other complete Bach collections use many and varied makes and locations in the hope of keeping our interest alive. Herrick's journey brings us a sound that has enough variety to show the Metzler's ability to bear a responsible approach to Bach despite their modern construction.

In his very favorable review of the Musical Offering, colleague Dan Davis noted how Savall's unique arrangement of the movements augments the performance's overall impact by forming a structurally sound symmetrical "arch" from beginning to end. Here Savall similarly rethinks the structural possibilities of the work, though his organizational choices function primarily as a means to enrich the impression of the fugues' varied sonorities and contrapuntal textures. Tempos also are generally very reserved, reminiscent of Davis' description of those in the Musical Offering as "startling in their slowness".

In the last 20 years of his life, Bach focused on publishing works for posterity. This period brings us the Mass in B Minor, the Great Eighteen and the Schubler chorales, the Musical Offering, and the Art of Fugue. Bach also published four sets called Clavier-Ubung, or "keyboard interpretation," including the 6 partitas (Part I), Italian Concerto and French Overture (Part II), and Goldberg Variations (Part IV). Part III of the Clavier-Ubung, recorded here, comprises 21 chorale preludes based on the Lutheran mass and catechism (BWV 669-689) and 4 duets (BWV 802-805). These are flanked by the "St. Anne" prelude and fugue in E-flat major (BWV 552a & b), making 27 pieces in all.

What you will find on this disc is A) contrapunctus I-IX played on two different organs in 1962; B) contrapunctus I II & IV from a1981 TV broadcast; C) contrapunctus IX XI & XIII in mono from a radio broadcast in 1967; D) the unfinished contrapunctus XIV from what may or may not be the same TV broadcast as B); and as a final filler E) a prelude and fugue on the name BACH from a studio recording in 1980. Items B)-E) are given on the piano.

This long-deleted Essential Classics reissue (available again courtesy of Arkivmusic.com’s on-demand reprint program) comprises the first CD remastering of two separate Bach piano releases. One disc features Rosalyn Tureck’s Bach Album, an early-1981 digital production made up mostly of short pieces, plus the Aria and Variations in Italian Style. The close-up yet warm sonics capture the full measure of Tureck’s technical specificity, subtle use of color, and micromanaged dynamics. Notice her absolute linear control in the F minor suite’s Prelude (first sound clip), or how her seemingly over-detached articulations (the seventh Italian variation) always maintain a lilting presence.

Instrumental transcriptions of Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard music have been legion witness just how many there are of The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue and yet very few of them seem to catch on. One notable exception is violinist and conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky's 1985 trio arrangement of the Goldberg Variations, made to observe Bach's tercentenary and as a memorial to pianist Glenn Gould, more readily associated with the Goldbergs than perhaps any other musician aside from Johann Gottlieb Goldberg himself.

Another collection of Bach’s chamber music from the ensemble led by Jed Wentz and Michael Borgstede, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung’s Middle East correspondent. As on its earlier release on Brilliant Classics, the ensemble has researched the scores, performance techniques and the types of instrument used at the time of composition. That is not to say that the approach they take is a dry academic one.

Konstantin Lifschitz has long since established himself as an outstanding exponent of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has already recorded the `Musical Offering´ and the `Art of Fugue´ for ORFEO and now turns his attention to the composer´s seven keyboard concertos. He is partnered by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble that enjoys an equally distinguished reputation for its Bach interpretations. With only three of these seven concertos has it been possible to identify specific originals with different solo instruments, while the other four have been ascribed to various other instruments by experts in the field; attributions that none the less continue to be hotly debated.