Johann Sebastian Suite

“One of the great interpreters of J. S. Bach,” was the New York Times’ description of the German organist and harpsichordist Helmut Walcha (1907-1991). His “intuitive grasp of the composer’s mind and intentions” was noted by The Guardian, while Gramophone judged that “his coherence and inner logic as a Bach interpreter remain unsurpassed.” Walcha’s recordings of Bach’s major solo keyboard works, performed on the harpsichord, are gathered together in this superb 13-CD collection.

Johann Sebastian Bach - Simone Dinnerstein - A Strange Beauty
Kammerorchester der Staatskapelle Dresden - Simone Dinnerstein, Piano
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 247 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Sony Classical # 88697727282 | Country/Year: Germany 2010
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Piano

…All in all, a real treat, one that has been thoughtfully programmed and thoughtfully performed. As Dinnerstein tends to prefer a more romantic approach toward Bach, one should be ready for that aspect upon listening. But if one listens with open ears, one will be greatly rewarded. The sound of the recording is clear and vibrant, with almost no reverberation. The sound is perfectly suited to home listening, never too dry. Hats off to the performers and the production team on a successful release.

Christopher Hogwood, gifted and energetic in so many musical spheres, brings his considerable experience and intelligence to bear on Bach's 'French Suites'. To the usual six he adds two, BWV818a in A minor and BWV819 (plus 819a) in E flat, which appear with the six in a number of contemporary manuscripts.

In this recording of Bach’s Suite No. 1, John Eliot Gardiner follows Passepieds I and II with Bach’s own setting of the chorale Dir, dir, Jehova, will ich singen BWV 299. The joyous text celebrates praise and discipleship, prolonging the suite’s exuberant mood. No other recorded version features a vocal tailpiece, but if you don’t like it, simply program your player to skip track 8. It’s good to find both parts of the Overtures to these works repeated (Frans Brüggen omits second-section repeats), but at times Gardiner can seem too rugged and unyielding for what is, after all, ceremonial or occasional music.

This disc continues Thomas Demenga's project of juxtaposing Bach cello suites with contemporary compositions—by Elliott Carter (12/90), Heinz Holliger, and now Sandor Veress, whose music we can hear growing out of, and away from, its neo-classical roots in Bach's polyphony.

While most serious listeners already have their favorite sets of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and the Orchestral Suites, newcomers searching for respectable recordings at a reasonable price would do well to start with this triple-CD set by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. These recordings were made in 1984 and 1985, and still offer fine sound for early digital recording and exceptional musical value. Marriner's performances may not be as exacting and scrupulous about Baroque performance practice as those of Gustav Leonhardt or Trevor Pinnock, but they are informed by serious scholarship and have sufficient appeal to make the finer points debatable.

In the '80s there were those listeners who thought that Heinrich Schiff might redeem cello performance practice from fatal beauty and lethal elegance. Aside from the burly and brawny Rostropovich, more and more cellists were advocating a performance style whose ideals were perfect intonation and graceful phrasing. In some repertoire, say, Fauré, these are perfectly legitimate goals. In other repertoire, Beethoven and Brahms, say, it is a terrible mistake. In Bach's Cello Suites, as the fay and fragile Yo-Yo Ma recordings make clear, it was a terminal mistake. Not so in Schiff's magnificently muscular 1984 recordings of the suites: Schiff's rhythms, his tempos, his tone, his intonation, and especially his interpretations were anything but fay or fragile. In Schiff's performance, Bach's Cello Suites are not the neurasthenic music of a composer supine with dread and despair in the dark midnight of the soul, but the forceful music of a mature composer in full control of himself and his music.

Bach's music is often described as indestructible, in the sense that no matter how it is performed, or in whichever arrangement, its essential spirit survives. Therefore, transcriptions of the Master's works are common, today as they were in Bach's time (Bach himself was an ardent transcriber!). This new recording presents instrumental works by Bach transcribed for and played on the modern guitar. The guitar as we know it did not exist in Bach's time - there was the baroque guitar, but it was not widespread in Germany. The closest chordophone instrument to Bach was the baroque lute, an instrument that the genius from Eisenach had among his instruments but probably did not play.