Bach Eulenburg

Nobody knows why Johann Sebastian Bach composed his six suites for solo cello. Nor does anybody know how it came about that the suites were soon afterwards consigned to oblivion and more than a century before a 13-year-old Spanish musical prodigy discovered a worn copy of the score in a second-hand bookstore store in Barcelona. For the next 11 years Pablo Casals practiced them every day. Finally, in 1936, he entered London’s Abbey Road studios to record the second and third suites for the first time. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, Bach’s cello suites have become a rite of passage for all aspiring cellists.

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

Everything about this 1967 recording is promising. Highly acclaimed Austrian soprano Rotraud Hansmann, the regal contralto Helen Watts, the effortless legato singing of tenor Kurt Equiluz, the equally wondrous baritone Max van Egmond. Famed for helping pave the way to informed historical performance practice, these excellent singers are joined by Concerto Amsterdam as Early Music performance pioneers often conducted by Frans Brüggen in the 1960s.

From the euphoric first to the solemn sixth, the Brandenburg Concertos feature some of Bach's fenrst and most popular orchestral music, interpreted here by legendary Bach specialist Karl Richter and his Münchener Bach-Orchester - for the first time on DVD.

Hermann Scherchen's performances of these Brandenburg Concerts avoids the normally expected exaltation of opening and closing movements conferred by most performances. Instead, he opts for a beautifully serene approach to the score, making it more reflective, thoughtful and expansive, hightlighting the lyrical flow that emanates from it.