This celebration of one of the most prodigiously talented musical families—father and two sons—is also a wonderful and varied program of three Magnificat settings. Father Johann Sebastian’s, the best known, is gloriously done by Arcangelo, with some spirited singing and energized orchestral playing. Johann Christian, the most cosmopolitan of the family, gives us a compact and rather Italianate setting while CPE Bach, perhaps JS’s most talented son, expands his Magnificat to 40 minutes. And what a setting it is—thrilling from the first notes, it just gets better.
JS Bach and Vivaldi s' Magnificat's: desert island repertoire to illustrate the splendour of the orchestra Le Concert des Nations and choir of La Capella Reial de Catalunya. Jordi Savall offers a vivid and striking performance of these two masterpieces, recorded live at the Royal Chapel in Versailles in 2013. Each of them is introduced by a concerto by the same composer in the same tonality. The superlative performance of Pierre Hantaï in the Concerto BWV1052 is another jewel to the crown of this album. The bonus DVD features both Magnificats and Bach s Concerto.
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was a prominent composer and organist of his era. While working at the Eisenbach court in Thüringen, he became a close friend of J.S. Bach's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach. As a parish musician, Pachelbel wrote most of his music for church services, especially for Mass and Vespers, when both singers and instrumentalists took part. His instrumental accompaniments are unusually rich. Although much of Pachelbel's music is lost, around twenty-six motets; nineteen "spiritual songs;" and thirteen Magnificats, geistliche Konzerte, and Masses have survived.