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I Filarmonici di Roma, Uto Ughi – Bach, Paganini, Massenet (2004)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 59:36 minutes | 2,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: hd-klassik.com | Digital Booklet | © Fonè Records/Audiophile Productions
Uto Ughi showed a remarkable talent from his earliest childhood; in this first public concert at the age of seven he played the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita No. 2 and several Paganini Capriccios. He then went on studying with Georges Enescu, who had been Yehudu Menuhin’s teacher.
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La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken – Johann Sebastian Bach – H-MOLL-MESSE (Mass B Minor BWV 232) (2009)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 01:41:39 minutes | 4,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
In the 1980s, Joshua Rifkin published his Preliminary Report on the workings and makeup of the “choir” in the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His conclusions (then provisional and to be further elaborated on) radically contradicted the practice of the time, which consisted in unreservedly assuming that by “choir” – indeed – Bach meant a vocal ensemble that has multiple singers per part, resulting in a more or less substantial number of performers. Before Rifkin, nobody had studied the sources with such seriousness from that standpoint or sought to envision the actual conditions Bach faced in his position as cantor. Rifkin’s findings, thus, were “sacrilegious.” Generally, he concluded, Bach used one singer per part in his cantatas, motets, passions, etc., so there was no “choir” in the modern sense of the word – consequently, the B minor Mass requires just eight vocalists (the Osanna is set for 2 choirs: 2 x 4 singers).
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Liza Ferschtman – J.S. Bach, Eugene Ysaye – Works for violin solo (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:05:10 minutes | 2,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDMusic | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
There are two ages between the lives and work of Johann Sebastian Bach and Eugène Ysaÿe. Two ages of difference and of similarities.
Bach emerged as a phenomenal composer, a genius, in the first half of the 18th Century. He left an enormous repertoire. Ysaÿe was to be a famous violinist in the beginning of the 20th Century. He also composed, but produced not as much as his illustrious predecessor.
Ysaÿe, violinist to the backbone, took the Sonatas and Partitas of Bach as an inspiration for his Sonatas for Violinsolo (1924). Just like Bach he put the Sonata nr. 1 in the key of g minor. Also the dividing of the Sonata in four movements – alternating between slow and fast – he derived from Bach. This composer was, as becomes perfectly clear, his big example.
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La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken – Johann Sebastian Bach – Weihnachtsoratorium BWV 248 (2014)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 02:19:19 minutes | 5,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
The Christmas Oratorio is a series of 6 separate cantatas, collectively relating the story from Christmas through to Twelfth Night. Bach wrote the work in Leipzig in 1734 and 1735 for Christmas Day (I), Boxing day (II), the third day of Christmas (III), New Year (IV), the Sunday after New Year (V) and Twelfth Night (VI). As with the Passions, the texts here are drawn from three sources: (1) the evangelical texts (primarily Luke and Matthew) intoned by the Evangelist (tenor) as recitatives, (2) chorales from the Lutheran tradition and (3) free texts for arias and some choral passages, written by the poet Picander.
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Rachel Podger & Brecon Baroque – J. S. Bach: Violin Concertos (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 51:42 minutes | 2,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: ISO SACD | © Channel Classics Records
It sometimes seems that many Baroque violinists never would have had careers as “normal” violinists–but this is certainly not the case with Rachel Podger. Although some of her work in music later than the Baroque period is less than convincing in its approach, there’s no question that she’s a top-notch musician, and she’s never made a finer (or smarter) recording than this. It’s a pleasure from first note to last.
First of all, it’s great seeing the two canonic Bach violin concertos not coupled with the usual “double” violin concerto (with the soloist playing both parts, of course). Instead, Podger offers transcriptions of two keyboard concertos, neither of which is usually thought to have been originally written for the violin. This makes less of a difference than you might think. The low tessitura of BWV 1055 may not offer Podger much of a technical challenge, but the sonorities recall the two strings-only Brandenburgs, and there are moments, such as her entry at the start of the finale, that are simply magical.
Both this work and BWV 1056 were likely composed for oboe (or oboe d’amore), but again, the delicious pizzicato Largo of the G minor concerto sounds wonderfully fresh and charming with a violin as soloist, and I don’t miss the honking and clicking of the usual Baroque oboe one bit. Which brings us to the next issue: Podger plays all of this music immaculately, with characterful ornamentation and (thank God) enough vibrato to achieve a distinctive cantabile tone, especially in the slow movements. Her moderate tempos in the allegros (the term means “lively”–not “like a bat out of hell”, as some authenticists apparently think) allow her to phrase the melodies with confidence, interact with and play off of the orchestra, and prevent Bach’s chugging rhythms from turning mechanical.
Brecon Baroque numbers just six players aside from Podger, which means essentially one player to a part. Yet the result never sounds thin or dry, thanks in large part to Channel Classics’ stunningly natural, warm SACD engineering (marvelous in regular stereo or multichannel formats). Also, and this really is a big deal, continuo player Christopher Bucknall uses a gentle, pleasant-toned instrument that never swamps the strings. The result is a true “chamber concerto” experience, an exquisite dialog that the players clearly relish while preserving the essential contrast between solo and tutti on which the concerto form depends. Highest recommendation.
Richard Egarr – J.S. Bach – The Partitas, BWV 825-830 (2017)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 02:34:36 minutes | 6,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Harmonia Mundi
At the time of my writing these notes, there lives in England an extraordinary 37-year-old ‘Savant’ who can make huge, complex calculations in his head, recite ‘pi’ to over 21,000 decimal points, and master languages unknown to him (such as Icelandic) in one week. These abilities manifested themselves after a head trauma in his young years. Unusually he displays none of the social difficulties in communication which other more autistic Savants often have. Such extraordinary people maybe give us a glimpse of the true potential of the human brain, that most complex and mysterious organ. I am convinced that Bach’s abilities with music, the manipulation of sound in time and space, were on this superhuman level. Commentators at the time attest to his ability to assess immediately the full potential and possibilities of any given fugue subject. Another frequently mentioned skill was an ability to infuse his music with numerical and mathematical material. These notes will take a look at Bach’s first major publication, his ‘Opus 1’, the six wonderful Partitas, and try to understand and suggest his message to us. The music must be familiar to any serious keyboard player or music lover, so I will restrict myself to a personal reaction to this music. Thereafter I will try to ‘decode’ the bigger and deeper message that lurks beneath these fantastic notes.
Read moreRachel Podger, Brecon Baroque – J.S. Bach – The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 (2016) DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC
Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque – J.S. Bach – The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:10:07 minutes | 2,81 GB | Genre: Classical
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – – 01:10:07 minutes | 1,44 GB
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Channel Classics Records
Fugue and the art of counterpoint are often almost bywords for Bach the composer. Certainly, from the viewpoint of many later generations, he was the first composer to make fugue the basis for a whole and complete piece of music, one that often seemed to serve no purpose beyond the ‘purely musical’. In a sense, this must surely be right: while there are countless fugal compositions before Bach, very few share the same relentless, yet expressive, cohesion, and most that were written outside the keyboard sphere were associated with a text and liturgical function. There is something about Bach’s fugal composition that immediately places it at the service of composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schoenberg. For them, earlier counterpoint in the Renaissance tradition provided more a model for refined technique than for an overriding nexus of musically cohering ideas.
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Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque – J.S. Bach – The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:10:07 minutes | 5,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Channel Classics Records
Fugue and the art of counterpoint are often almost bywords for Bach the composer. Certainly, from the viewpoint of many later generations, he was the first composer to make fugue the basis for a whole and complete piece of music, one that often seemed to serve no purpose beyond the ‘purely musical’. In a sense, this must surely be right: while there are countless fugal compositions before Bach, very few share the same relentless, yet expressive, cohesion, and most that were written outside the keyboard sphere were associated with a text and liturgical function. There is something about Bach’s fugal composition that immediately places it at the service of composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schoenberg. For them, earlier counterpoint in the Renaissance tradition provided more a model for refined technique than for an overriding nexus of musically cohering ideas.
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La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken – Johann Sebastian Bach – St. John Passion, BWV 245 (2012)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 01:51:35 minutes | 4,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
Let’s start with a simple question : which version have you recorded? Hmm, this is actually a rather complex question. During Bach’s lifetime there were four different performances, each time with new modifications, some in response to the circumstances at the time, others influenced by which musicians and instruments he then had at his disposal. However Bach experimented to the greatest degree with the second version, dating from 1725: for instance, he used a different opening chorus (which was later to become the closing chorus of the first part of the St Matthew Passion, a work yet to be composed at this stage) and a couple of other arias near the end of the work. For the later performances he reverted to his first version from 1724, albeit with some differences in instrumentation. For instance, in the final version he includes a bassono grosso, but no one knows for certain which instrument he had in mind; possibly a 16-foot bassoon, i.e. a contrabassoon, a veritable chimney pot two metres in length. However, he scored this instrument in combination with the delicate sound of the lute and two violas d’amore, of all things! I cannot believe that Bach would opt for such an instrument in this passage; an 8-foot bassoon is more likely and the term bassono grosso probably indicates this more modern type of instrument rather than the earlier dulcian, although the latter had not totally fallen out of fashion at the time. However, I would not venture a definite opinion as to what bassono grosso means in this context. So we did not use this instrument: this was yet another reason to stick with the first version, since it raises fewer uncertain issues. Nevertheless, there are still various grey areas involved. Even prior to the first performance, before making the individual orchestral parts, Bach began to write out the score in fine calligraphy, a task he did not complete; and this score deviates in some aspects from the orchestral material used in the actual performance. The process of determining the most probable historical truth continues to have elements reminiscent of a detective novel; anyway, it will never be possible to clarify certain details. At any rate, we opted for the first version that everyone performs.
Read moreNetherlands Bach Society, Jos Van Veldhoven – J.S. Bach – St. John Passion, BWV 245 (2005) DSF DSD64
Netherlands Bach Society, Jos Van Veldhoven – J.S. Bach – St. John Passion, BWV 245 (2005)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 01:51:35 minutes | 4,41 GB | Genre: Classical
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:51:35 minutes | 2,16 GB
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Channel Classics Records B.V.
As with the work itself, there’s no recording of Bach’s St. John Passion that stands as preeminent and certainly none that can claim to be definitive. But, if you accept Jos van Veldhoven’s decisions regarding certain key aspects of this performance–including the reconstruction of some parts–this one comes very close. Aside from the various versions of the score that Bach himself created, performances are widely varied in terms of instrumentation (numbers and types of instruments and how they are used) and vocal forces (most significantly, how many singers to a part). Here, Veldhoven has chosen to attempt to reconstruct and perform the St. John in a version as close as possible to what was heard at the work’s premiere in 1724. You can read the rationale for and details of this effort in the excellent liner notes, but suffice it to say that some guesses and reconstructive decisions had to be made in several cases, both in vocal and orchestral parts. Most shocking to listeners familiar with this work is the total absence of flutes, which opens up the orchestral sound to a new and very different world of color.
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Rocco Filippini – Johann Sebastian Bach – Sei Suites for solo cello, BWV 1007-1012 (2013)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 02:09:28 minutes | 5,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDMusic | Digital Booklet | © Fonè Records/Audiophile Productions
The most remarkable, unexpected, and surprising of the works that came to light in Kothen, where Bach worked from December 1717 to April 1723, are those for violin and cello that Johann Sebastian conceived without the support of any accompaniment, entrusted to either a figured bass or to a cymbal playing in alternating ‘concertante’ manner.
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Julia Fischer – J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin, BWV 1001-1006 (2005)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 02:28:48 minutes | 5,88 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Pentatone Music B.V.
No doubt many of you are wondering whether I should be recording Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas at the age of only 21. Perhaps I should have waited a bit longer? Well, patience has seldom been my strong point, and after all I have already waited a number of years for an opportunity to record these works. During the first six years of study with my teacher Ana Chumachenco, I studied the sonatas and partitas thoroughly, and first performed both cycles in their entirety in the Bach year 2000, during the course of two evenings at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. Ever since that intensive “Bach month”, in which I concentrated purely on the music of this composer, I have felt the urgent need to hold on to the sonatas and partitas by means of a recording. This musical experience led me to overcome my many years of aversion to studio recordings. Thus, I decided at the time already to reserve my first solo CD for the music of Bach.
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La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken – Johann Sebastian Bach: Matthaus-Passion BWV 244 (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 02:37:27 minutes | 6,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
Magnificent and transparent, a recording of the famous masterpiece by J.S. Bach by La Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken. The ensemble has a worldwide reputation of aiming for the most authentic sound possible. Again Kuijken and his group of musicians and vocalists have achieved this the most sublime way!
Sigiswald Kuijken knows the St. Matthew Passion through and through. With La Petite Bande he gave performances of the work all over the world. Twenty years ago La Petite Bande (at that time with conductor Gustav Leonhardt and Kuijken as concertmaster) made their first recording of the Passion. It was a recording with soloists, a chamberchoir and an orchestral composition which was adjusted to that. Since then Kuijken’s vision on this masterpiece has changed very much. Ground-breaking musicological work of the last decades has brought him to a serious thin-out of his ensemble without the use of a conductor. There is not a real choir anymore, because the soloists perform also the choirparts. The boyschoir that is usually used in most performances of this Passion is replaced here by a single soprano voice!
Netherlands Bach Society, Jos Van Veldhoven – J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232 (2007)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:45:45 minutes | 4,18 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:45:34 minutes | 3,2 GB
Genre: Classical | Source: ISO SACD / channelclassics.com | © Channel Classics Records B.V. | Front Cover, Booklet
From the moment that a decision was made to record Bach’s Mass in b minor, it was clear tome that the scoring would have to be small-scale. After our successful and highly-praised recording of the St.John Passion in 2004-in which a small group of singcrs performed both the solo parts and the chorus parts there was really no way back. We had come to know a new kind of collaboration between instrumentalists and singers, which gave us an ideal foundation for the interpretation of Bach’s music and led to deeply expressive performances. Together, we discovered a new definition for the word ‘choir’. But at the same time, the Mass in b minor is a large-scale score: Bach, in his last completed work, demanded every possible performing force available to him. For example, in this unique and incomparable score, he used nearly every imaginable combination of voices and virtually the entire spectrum of instrumentation of his day. The enormous wealth of genres and structures is dazzling for the listener: timeless polyphony, fugues, canrus-firmus techniques, polychoral work, vocal and instrumental concern, concern for groups of instruments, concern grossi, osninani, solo arias and duets – in scorings from three to seven voices and in remarkably varied combinations-and choruses ranging from four to eight parts. It is certain that Bach never performed his masterpiece in complete form, and it remains unclear for what purpose or occasion he composed it. The beautiful autograph score remains a closed book in many respects: it contains hardly any tempo indications or dynamic signs. The movements are simply called Kyrie, Gloria, or Agnus Dci. All of the parts of the enormous score indicate one-on-a-part settings for instrumentalists or singers. Nowhere does Bach give suggestions for how to score the continuo. Is it written for soloists, or is Bach writing for a ‘real’ chorus? How large should the string groups be, and is variable scoring another option?
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La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken – Johann Sebastian Bach – Motets (2006)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 56:46 minutes | 2,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
J.S. Bach’s motets are the indisputable summit of his output. Traditionally the motets have been placed at the centre of his choral universe.Choirs can show off their technical brilliance, and moreover these scores are a joy to perform regardless of one’s style of interpretation. However, for the last 25 years musicians and musicologists have subjected the importance of Bach’s choirs to a fundamental review. The current research points out that Bach himself almost never had more than eight singers at his disposal (even for double-choir pieces). This is far away from the usual more or less large choirs for the great choral works. This research has been the source of inspiration for this production of the Bach motets to use only one singer per part. The result delivers an unusual transparency and clarity of the musical lines. (The 4-part Motet Lobet den Herren, alle Heiden has not been included in this recording because of serious doubts about authorship.)
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