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.
In the early 1730s Bach revised his E flat major Magnificat of 1723, transposing it to D major and omitting the interpolations peculiar to Christmas performances in Leipzig. (Recent research suggests such richly scored Latin Magnificats could be performed in Lutheran churches at some 15 annual festivals, not just the three – Xmas, Easter, Ascension – previously supposed.)
Jan Dismas Zelenka (16 October 1679, Louňovice pod Blaníkem, Bohemia - 23 December 1745, Dresden, Saxony), baptised Jan Lukáš Zelenka and previously also known as Johann Dismas Zelenka, was the most important Czech Baroque composer, whose music was notably daring with outstanding harmonic invention and mastery of counterpoint.
Discover or rediscover the masterpieces and rare gems of the baroque and classical repertoire with the greatest performers : Hervé Niquet (Richard Cœur de Lion by Grétry, The Magic Flute by Mozart, Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse by Boismortier), John Eliot Gardiner (La Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz), Vincent Dumestre (Phaéton, Cadmus et Hermione et Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by Lully, Egisto by Cavalli), Raphaël Pichon (Vespro della Beata Vergine by Monteverdi), Gaétan Jarry (Les Arts Florissans and David et Jonathas by Charpentier), Valentin Tournet (Les Indes Galantes by Rameau, Magnificat by Bach), Stéphane Fuget (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria by Monteverdi, Grands Motets by Lully in 3 volumes), Leonardo García Alarcón (La Finta Pazza by Sacrati and The Coronation of Poppaea by Monteverdi), Olivier Latry (Mass for the Convents and Mass for the Parishes by Couperin), Jordi Savall (L’Orfeo by Monteverdi), Christophe Rousset (Psyché and Atys by Lully), Placido Domingo (The Versailles Gala), Mathias Vidal (Rameau triomphant) and Marc Minkowski (Nouvelle Symphonie by Rameau). The label has also recorded the first two French operas composed by women: Cephalus and Procris by Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre and Les Génies by Mademoiselle Duval.