This USB is planned for special release on Record
Store Day, 20 April 2013, at £120; thereafter it will be available
from AmazonUK for £180. By comparison the CD box set of the cantatas
alone costs around £170. That makes it very good value for money
as well as encapsulating ‘infinite riches in a little room’,
with apologies to the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. If
anyone in Marlowe’s time had even imagined that we might have such
fine performances of such great music on a memory stick the size of
a pencil eraser they would surely have been burned for witchcraft.
Warner issued these recordings with a different catalogue number as
a 153-CD set in late 1999 with the title
Bach 2000, in preparation
for the Millennium celebrations and the 250th anniversary of the composer’s
death. At the time comments were made about how surprised Johann Sebastian
would have been to have seen recordings of his complete extant works
– much, of course, has been lost – fitted easily onto a
single library shelf. That set remains available as a limited edition
with the catalogue number which I’ve listed above – target
price £250 in the UK.
Since then we have had the complete works from Hänssler in performances
directed by Helmut Rilling, first in a 172-CD set, currently on offer
for around £200 – Bargain of the Month:
review
– and on a limited-edition iPod –
review;
now Warner goes one better still in issuing their
Bach 2000
set in 320kb/s mp3 sound in even smaller space on a single USB memory
stick. They score thereby over Hänssler in that the latter have
encoded the music at a mere 128kb/s, an odd decision when they used
only 10GB of the iPod’s space: at least 32GB, up to 160GB, depending
on the edition purchased.
Warner have taken a leaf out of the book of Chandos, who some time
ago made available a number of their recordings in collected form
on USB. Ironically, Chandos have just abandoned the project and deleted
all their USBs. Whereas Chandos included both lossless (wma or flac)
and 320kb/s mp3 files, for the Complete Bach Edition that would have
required a very large-capacity USB, so Warner have inevitably compromised
with best-quality mp3.
The Teldec Complete Bach Edition takes up 25.3 GB of a 30GB USB stick
so, in theory, there’s room to add more music – the excellent
new Linn (Dunedin Consort/Butt) or Hyperion (Polyphony/Layton) recordings
of the
St John Passion, for example, or even both: the Linn
takes up 2.47GB in 24/96 format and the Hyperion 1.89GB in 14/88.1
format. The music can be played direct from the USB – simply
plug it into a suitable slot on your PC – or you can drag and
drop the music to your hard drive or auxiliary drive. Most recent
DVD and blu-ray players and television recorders also have one or
more USB sockets on the front or back for reproduction of pictures
and music.
You won’t expect me to have listened to every note on this massive
undertaking but I have sampled it pretty thoroughly and can confidently
confirm that it’s excellent value. Inevitably when the recordings
were made over such a large time-span, there are one or two individual
cases where the performances are less than ideal or where I imagine
that others may find them so, but overall the standard maintained
is very high. What I have done is to give you some idea of the strengths
of the edition and suggest alternatives where I think them preferable.
I’ve also made some suggestions as to the best way to play this
USB edition.
I found it inconvenient to have each of the Brandenburg Concertos,
for example, housed in a separate file on the USB, necessitating a
return to the PC every time I wanted to play the next one, so I created
a file on my external hard drive ‘Teldec/Bach Brandenburg Concertos’
and dragged the relevant files onto it. Ditto with the Orchestral
Suites, the Violin Concertos and Keyboard Concertos.
Another option is to use a programme like iTunes to make mp3 CD-Rs
of favourite works: the Brandenburgs and the Orchestral Suites together
easily fit onto such a disc for playing in the car. Since the music
is not continuous across tracks, the fact that in-car and portable
players and DVD/blu-ray decks leave a short gap between tracks when
playing back such mp3 CD-Rs doesn’t create a problem, though
you may find the low-level pop that some players make between tracks
annoying. Be warned, however, that even on mp3 CD-Rs the collection
would run to something like forty discs.
In the case of the organ works, however, you may find it convenient
to leave matters as they are on the USB, where they are organised
by BWV number – that’s fine as long as you know the number
that you are looking for, which you can find in the pdf booklet.
Musical archaeologists would find among the deepest, oldest strata
of these recordings the complete Sacred Cantatas which Telefunken
recorded, alternating between Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt,
on their
das alte Werk label in the early 1970s. In many ways
these recordings, ground-breaking in their day in the use of original
instruments and treble soloists, remain the glory of the catalogue
of Teldec, as Telefunken are now called.
Avoid these very fine recordings only if you strongly object to period
instruments – by no means obtrusive here – or of boys’
voices, which, after all, constituted the sound which Bach had in
mind. For all my strong appreciation of the complete series by John
Eliot Gardiner (SDG, a handful also on DG Archiv), that nearing its
completion from Masaaki Suzuki (BIS – a couple more volumes to
go), less complete offerings from Sigiswald Kuijken (Accent) and Philippe
Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi and PHI –
review
of most recent release), and the few remaining DG Archiv CDs of Karl
Richter*, it’s to these Harnoncourt and Leonhardt versions that
I return most regularly.
* Just one single CD and one double CD which, between them, duplicate
three cantatas. The multi-CD box sets which were on sale till recently
remain available as reasonably-priced downloads (mp3 and lossless)
from deutschegrammophon.com; otherwise look out for remainders and
second-hand. Warner/Teldec still offer Richter’s recordings of
Cantatas 67, 108 and 127 (256469766-6). Berlin Classics have revived
some worthwhile recordings by Kurt Thomas – these too are of
much more than historical interest: see my review of Nos. 71 (not
110 as stated there), 111 and 140 in my
Christmas
2010 Download Roundup. Ignore the Passionato link – no longer
viable – purchase on mid-price CD or download from
amazon.co.uk.
As I was writing about the wonderful bargain of having all Bach’s
music on a single USB and enjoying the chance to listen again to performances
of all the sacred cantatas directed alternately by Nikolaus Harnoncourt
and Gustav Leonhardt, BIS produced their latest – and one of
the last – volume in their strongly competitive series: Cantatas
Nos. 97, 177 and 9 on BIS-SACD-1991 – see
Download
News 2013/5. My only complaint, as with earlier volumes, is that
the cantatas included there are connected by only the slenderest of
links – but that’s no more tenuous than Teldec’s run
of BWV numbers.
These Teldec cantata recordings disappeared some time ago from separate
availability on CD, but they remain available as downloads, either
separately, often for as little as £2.79, or on ten 6-CD sets,
each of the latter available from amazon.co.uk in 256kb/s mp3 for
£13.49 or from sainsburysentertainment.co.uk in 320kb/s for
£14.99. I’ve reviewed a number of these in various Download
Roundups and they remain recommendable if you don’t want the
rest of the Complete Edition. Please note, however, that Volumes 1-6,
9 and 10 which I recommended in my
August
2012/1 Download Roundup as 320kb/s downloads from classicsonline.com
seem to have dropped out of availability, though still available in
that form from Amazon and Sainsburys, while the single albums remain
available from classicsonline.com, some at £2.79, some at £4.99.
It doesn’t take a brilliant mathematical brain, however, to work
out that if you purchase all the sacred cantatas as downloads you’ll
soon find yourself having paid out a considerable sum which you could
have put towards the Complete Edition.
The b-minor Mass is included in Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s 1986 recording,
still competitive in its own right despite excellent recent alternatives,
especially those directed by John Eliot Gardiner (DG Archiv, most
economically purchased in the 9-CD Collector’s Edition with the
Passions and
Christmas Oratorio), John Butt (Linn CKD354 –
July
2010 Download Roundup) and Masaaki Suzuki (BIS-SACD-1701/2 –
review).
The short Lutheran Masses are in the hands of the Ensemble Vocal and
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Michel Corboz, Erato recordings
from 1974, when they ran to three LPs. They now fit on two ‘discs’,
together with the ‘spare’ settings of the
Sanctus. Though
much of the material is borrowed from cantatas, these masses are still
genuine Bach and well worth hearing and the performances, though a
trifle less than authentic, do them justice. There are more recent
versions, notably from Ton Koopman on Channel Classics (Recording
of the Month –
review)
but you won’t go far wrong with Corboz, though their appearance separately
on a budget-price Apex twofer 2564 69046-8 received a more lukewarm
response
from Robert Hugill than seems to me to be warranted.
The
St Matthew Passion is presented in Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s
1970 recordings – generally regarded as superior to his remake.
Choosing one definitive version of this great work is impossible –
for one thing, there isn’t such a thing as
the St Matthew or
the St John, as Bach revised both – but this recording
would certainly be on my own shortlist, perhaps slightly lower down
than John Eliot Gardiner (DG Archiv), John Butt (Linn: Recording of
the Month –
review
–
review
and
March
2010 Download Roundup) or Masaaki Suzuki (BIS –
review).
Dipping into Harnoncourt’s recording for this review has convinced
me that I shall certainly be listening to this recording again in
full during Holy Week – a busy schedule for which is already
planned, with new recordings of the
St John Passion on Linn
and Hyperion already pencilled in (Recordings of the Month –
see
2013/4
Download News). Not the least of the virtues of the Harnoncourt
St Matthew is the employment of King’s College Choir and the
involvement thereby of Sir David Willcocks.
By a small margin I prefer the
St John Passion to its mightier
cousin and here the two new Linn and Hyperion recordings which I’ve
mentioned provide very strong competition alongside Masaaki Suzuki
– an even stronger challenger here than in the
St Matthew,
as Kirk McElhearn points out in his review of the 5-CD set of both
(above) – Jos van Veldhoven (Channel Classics –
March
2012/2 Download Roundup), Frans Brüggen (Glossa –
May
2011/2 Download Roundup) and John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv). For
the Complete Edition Teldec have chosen Harnoncourt’s later (1995)
Harnoncourt recording – the earlier version having been released
at budget price on 2564696444.
I wouldn’t now make this
St John a top choice in preference
to the versions that I’ve listed above and which I intend to listen
to in Holy Week – the Gardiner is particularly excellent value
for as little as £22.50 from some online suppliers in the 9-CD
box set with the
St Matthew,
Christmas Oratorio and
b minor Mass – anyone buying the Complete Edition should,
nevertheless, rest satisfied with their purchase. It’s just that,
whereas Harnoncourt’s Bach once seemed ground-breaking – even
shockingly so to some listeners – by comparison with those versions
that I’ve mentioned he now sounds just a little conventional and even
a trifle heavy, but I don’t want to make it seem too much of an issue.
By the time that I came to the two final numbers,
Ruht wohl and
Ach, Herr, laß dein lieb Engelein, all my small reservations
had been willingly forgotten.
Probably wisely, there is no attempt here to reconstruct the lost
St Mark Passion, though the libretto for that work survives
and much of the music can be convincingly reconstructed from the various
cantatas for which Bach re-cycled it, as on the CD conducted by Michael
Willens (Carus 83.244 –
review).
The
Easter Oratorio is performed by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
and Choir directed by Ton Koopman, a 1998 recording. There is strong
competition in this work from the period-instrument Harmonia Mundi
CD directed by Philippe Herrewghe, coupled with Cantata No.66 on HMC90.1513
and the modern-instrument Hänssler CD directed by Helmut Rilling
(94.024, 4 CDs with other cantatas for Palm Sunday, Eastertide, Ascension
and Pentecost) – see
March
2010 Download Roundup for my views on both of these. Whilst either
of these or the Linn recording directed by Matthew Halls, coupling
the
Easter and
Ascension Oratorios (CKD373: Recording
of the Month –
review
and
May
2011/1 Download Roundup), depending on your tastes regarding period
instruments, might be the top recommendation, the Koopman recording
is certainly no also-ran.
If I found it inconvenient to have the Brandenburgs and other concertos
offered singly, that’s an advantage with the cantatas, given that
I some time shy away from playing the Rilling performances which I
purchased in 2000 in multi-CD packages because one cantata follows
the other too closely. That’s not a problem with Hänssler’s single-CD
releases.
The
Christmas Oratorio was recorded under Harnoncourt’s direction
in 1972. You must excuse me for only dipping into that, since it seemed
something of a sacrilege to get immersed in the whole work at Easter.
Ground-breaking in its time, this recording has been overtaken by
Gardiner (in that 9-CD box again), Suzuki (BIS) and Harnoncourt’s
own later recording for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, but is still among
the most recommendable versions.
Nor did it seem appropriate to linger too long over the
Magnificat
with the Christmas additions, BWV243A, here provided in a recording
made by Simon Preston and the Academy of Ancient Music for Decca in
1979, with Judith Nelson and Emma Kirkby among the soloists, a sound
choice, even in the use of two superb female sopranos as against the
trebles of the Christ Church Cathedral Choir. The unadorned
Magnificat
in D comes from Harnoncourt and his team (from 1984).
The three arias from the 1725
St John Passion are tacked onto
the recording of Psalm 51 on CD (No.84 in the complete set) and they
are numbered there consecutively with the tracks of that folder, though
included in a separate folder. For the purposes of the USB version,
it might have been better to have renumbered these as an appendix
to the
St John recording, though they have a different provenance
– Peter Schreier as soloist and conductor, with Olaf Bär
and the Dresden Staatskapelle, licensed from Universal.
The
Motets remain one of my very few blind spots within Bach’s
vocal music. I own these 1980 performances directed by Harnoncourt
and Anders Öhrwall on CD, so they are no more likely to persuade
me on USB than they did on disc – I’m sure it’s not their fault.
Masaaki Suzuki (BIS-SACD-1841), downloaded in 24-bit sound from elcassical.com,
comes closer than any recording that I’ve ever heard to persuading
me – I hope to include that recording in a future Download News.
I wonder why BIS used the cover shot of a Bible in Dutch.
The Fifty
Chorales edited by Kirnberger and CPE Bach are performed
by the Rundfunkchor Berlin, directed by Robin Gritton, and these are
followed by sacred songs from the
Schemelli Gesangbuch, three
Wedding Chorales (Koopman) and other lesser works – all enjoyable,
though you would hardly be likely to buy the Edition for these.
Though I know the Teldec recordings of the sacred cantatas very well,
I hadn’t heard any of the secular cantata recordings and turned to
that of the
Coffee Cantata, BWV211, expecting to find it inferior
to the Kirkby/Covey-Crump/Thomas/Hogwood recording which I treasure
(Decca Oiseau-Lyre E417 6212). It is, but by a far smaller margin
than I had expected and the recording, though dating from 1968, still
sounds well.
The
Coffee Cantata,
Zerresisset, Zersprenget (BWV205),
the
Hunt Cantata (BWV208) and the
Peasant Cantata (BWV212)
are performed by Harnoncourt and his team, while Leonhardt and his
ensemble perform BWV203 and 209 (rec. 1965 and 1967), but the other
secular cantatas are provided by Ton Koopman (borrowed from sister
Warner label Erato), Jaap Schröder, Reinhard Goebel and André
Rieu (the last two licensed from DG). The Secular Cantatas series
also contains some variants and appendices, such as Cantata 36C, the
birthday adaptation of
Schwingt freudig euch empor, contributed
by Peter Schreier (licensed from Edel).
These are all good or very good performances, but the lack of texts*
is even more of a problem here than with the sacred cantatas, passions
and masses, where the words are much better known and easily available
with translation online. Even fluent German speakers would have quite
a problem with the imponderable dialect of the
Peasant Cantata,
Mer Hahn en neue Oberkeet (we’ve got a new master), especially
as the singers lay the accent on thick. You’ll find the original text
here.
The version included is not the 1968 recording which first appeared
with the
Coffee Cantata but one which dates from 1990.
* Though not included in the pdf booklet, texts and translations of
all the vocal music can be found at
www.bach-cantatas.com,
a fact buried in the small print.
That performance of BWV212 is coupled with the
Hunt Cantata (
Was
mir behagt, BWV208), as on its first appearance. The well-known
aria
Schafe können sicher weiden from this cantata (Sheep
may safely graze), which, from its association with school assemblies,
especially in the Walton arrangement, many wrongly assume comes from
a sacred cantata – the ‘good shepherd’ is not Jesus but
the birthday boy Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels – receives
a particularly beautiful performance.
The recordings of the
Orchestral Suites come from Concentus
Musicus, stylish performances from 1985 which still sound well. Warner
could also have included one of the Harnoncourt recordings of the
Brandenburgs, but neither the 1981/2 version, included among
the 21 CDs released for the Concentus Musicus 25th anniversary in
1985, nor the earlier 1964 set has remained free from criticism.
They chose instead a much later Teldec recording by Il Giardino Armonico
and Giovanni Antonini from 1997, castigated in some quarters as too
fast at times and generally too forceful, but that’s not a criticism
which I share, though I’m glad that their unfocused accounts of the
Orchestral Suites were not chosen. Apart from some rather squally
horn playing in No.1 – and John Eliot Gardiner’s horns (SDG)
are pretty ripe here, too – I like them rather more than their
rivals from the Hänssler complete recording, recently reissued
on a 2-CD set (94.615 –
review).
As my DRM-limited download of these recordings from the now defunct
warnerfreshdigital.co.uk will no longer play and was at 192kb/s only,
I was very glad to replace it with the new 320kb/s tracks.
Those who still think Antonini too fast should try the recording which
first made the Brandenburgs famous and introduced them to me, Karl
Münchinger and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (Decca 1950).
That version, a best seller when it was reissued on Decca Ace of Clubs,
can be downloaded for curiosity in a transfer from Past Classics for
£2.52 or less from
emusic.com;
there’s what is probably a better transcription for £3.98 from
classicsonline.com
or Naxos Classical Archives and better still in mp3 or lossless for
$18.73 from eclassical.com. Münchinger’s tempi now often sound
unbelievably slow, though I was pleasantly surprised to hear how well
he keeps the rhythm going and more pleased than I expected to hear
him again, but compare the third and fourth movements of No.1 (5:01
and 9:17 from Münchinger; 3:52 and 7:03 from Antonini) and the
advantages of Antonini’s approach should be clear. There are times
in that concerto where Münchinger seems almost to grind to a
halt.
Tempora mutantur, or things ain’t what they used to be, but
I was surprised to find no less perceptive a reviewer than Lionel
Salter welcoming Münchinger’s LP of Nos. 4 and 6 (LXT2501 –
that’s all you got on one LP in those early days) with words such
as ‘brilliance’. True, he did say that some of the tempi were
‘too Teutonically deliberate’, but when he came to review the
separate 78 rpm release of No.4 a few months later he thought the
finale of No.4 lively. Surprisingly, Münchinger is actually marginally
faster than Antonini in this movement, but his Brandenburgs taken
as a whole serve to reveal how much livelier more recent recordings
like the Teldec are.
The more truthful modern recording helps, but I don’t think that’s
the only reason why I prefer Antonini. With an almost bewildering
array of excellent recordings of the Brandenburgs – John Eliot
Gardiner (SDG*), Trevor Pinnock (Avie and DG Archiv) and Rinaldo Alessandrini
(Naïve) spring immediately to mind, to name period-instrument
performances alone – it’s unlikely that you would be buying the
USB set solely for the sake of these works, but you may well find
them an attractive adjunct to whatever other version(s) you may have.
* In addition to the mp3 version from classicsonline.com which I recommended
in the
January
2010 Download Roundup,
eclassical.com
also offer these recordings in lossless sound; at $16.64 for the 2-CD
set, that’s less expensive than classicsonline.com charge for mp3
only, as well as representing a useful saving on the CDs. There’s
no booklet, but that’s available from Naxos Music Library.
If Antonini’s version of Brandenburg No.4 is a bit too much, try the
recording of its adaptation as a keyboard concerto, BWV1057, in a
1960s recording with Gustav Leonhardt directing from the keyboard
and Frans Brüggen and Jeanette van Wingerden on recorders. The
first movement is just as fast, but less furious, and the other movements
are slightly slower as well as more relaxed in manner. That doesn’t
mean, however, that I agree with Lionel Salter who, reviewing the
three LPs on which the keyboard concertos were released in 1967 thought
the performances stylish and lively but a little lacking in grace
and variety of tone. Bear in mind that period performance was then
in its infancy and we’re a little less inclined now to criticise such
performances. Incidentally, the date in the booklet, 1968, must be
incorrect: the LPs could hardly have been released and reviewed a
year before they were to be recorded.
As well as the seven regular solo concertos, Leonhardt reconstructed
the incomplete d minor, BWV1059, from Cantata No.35, which shares
material with the extant fragment of this eighth concerto. The result
is convincing – here I do agree with Lionel Salter’s 1967 review;
like everything else it’s stylish played and the recording still sounds
well, though the imbalance between the over-prominent recorders and
the keyboard in BW1057 persists.
Though I enjoyed these performances of the keyboard concertos without
serious reservation, they are not the last word – as with some
of the other items on the USB, you may well wish to supplement them.
Lovers of the piano will wish to turn to Angela Hewitt on Hyperion
– recordings which I’m glad to make the outstanding exception
to my dislike of Bach on the modern instrument.
You’ll find in my forthcoming Download News 2013/6 my reasons for
preferring the new recording by Petra Müllejans, Gottfried von
der Golz and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (Harmonia Mundi HMC902145)
to the Harnoncourts in BWV1041-3. The Harmonia Mundi recording also
includes the 3-violin reconstruction of BWV1064R, which the Teldec
Edition includes on CD153 in a performance borrowed from Decca and
directed by Christopher Hogwood; here honours are about even, with
both offering sprightly outer movements and a sensitive but not over-sentimental
slow movement. The Hogwood recording sounds lighter than the Harmonia
Mundi but I could be more than happy with either.
I have been very impressed by Café Zimmerman’s 6-CD set of
Concertos avec plusieurs instruments, interweaving the Brandenburg
Concertos, Orchestral Suites, Violin and Keyboard Concertos. (ALPHA811
–
review
and
April
2012/1 Download Roundup: also available separately). Only the
Keyboard Concerto BWV1058 is missing from the collection – that’s
available with BWV1052, 1055 and 1056 on Mirare MIR085 – reviewed
in the same
April
2012/1 Download Roundup. More recently Volume 1 has appeared of
a very promising set of the keyboard concertos from Æolus with
Aapo Hakkinen and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra (BWV1052, 1053 and
1056, AE-10057 – see
2013/3
Download News.) There’s also a very fine selection of four of
the keyboard concertos from Matthew Halls and the Retrospect Consort
(Linn CKD410: Recording of the Month –
review
and
review).
The Musical Offering comes from a 1970 recording made by Harnoncourt
on tenor viola and cello with a group of distinguished instrumentalists.
There’s no disguising the fact that this was primarily a musicological
exercise designed to impress Frederick the Great, the employer of
Bach’s son, but the small-scale performance here is very enjoyable.
This time it’s not Münchinger but Milan Munclinger who introduced
this music to me, on Supraphon, a recording which I’m sure I would
find too large-scale now alongside Harnoncourt and his team.
This stylish Harnoncourt recording has been around the block a few
times – it’s deservedly still on offer on a separate Teldec release,
listed at the end of this review – but it still sounds as well
as any of the more recent versions that I know, especially as Davitt
Moroney’s version on Harmonia Mundi is not currently available. The
fact that the performance runs to less than 47 minutes matters much
less than if you were considering buying it on a single CD. If you
prefer a fuller-toned version on modern instruments – not that
the Teldec sounds austere – you should consider as an adjunct
the ASMF/Marriner recording, now on an inexpensive Double Decca set
with the
Art of Fugue (442 5562). See also my
review
of Trio Concertante of London’s Somm recording (SOMMCD077).
Herbert Tachezi in a set of notes on
The Art of Fugue points
out that it’s no longer possible to regard the work as an academic
exercise and his performance on a smallish North German (Ahrend and
Brunzena, Bremen) organ (1977) is certainly far from pedantic. My
own feelings are that the music is best performed in organ form and
my benchmark is Helmut Walcha on DG (1956, but good early stereo),
sadly no longer generally available on CD, though amazon.co.uk still
seem to stock it (two left when I checked), and it can be obtained
as a download from
deutschegrammophon.com
in mp3 or lossless sound (DG Original Masters 477 6508 – see
July
2009 Download Roundup). If Tachezi is not quite as compelling
as Walcha, there’s little in it and his slightly faster, though never
rushed, tempi and his omission of the incomplete 4-part final fugue
mean that he gets though in 72:36 on one CD whereas Walcha, who includes
the 4-part fugue (8:42 of his total 83:47) runs to a second disc,
albeit one filled with some other fine performances.
I compared the Violin and Keyboard Sonatas, BWV1014-1019, dating from
1976, with the recent Manson/Koopman recording on Challenge Classics
(CC72560 –
review).
Tempi are very similar and I didn’t think the Teldec performances
in any way inferior to the new Challenge Classics recordings. These
works share a good deal of the nature of trio sonatas, so Nikolaus
Harnoncourt on viola da gamba joins Alice Harnoncourt (violin) and
Herbert Tachezi (harpsichord) in some of them – that’s especially
effective in the opening movement of BWV1015. The second CD containing
these sonatas is complemented by performances of BWV1019a, 1021 and
1023 from John Holloway (violin), Davitt Moroney (harpsichord and
chamber organ) and Susan Sheppard (cello), licensed from Virgin Classics
(1989).
A number of strange hybrid instruments are associated with Bach’s
music, notably the pedal-harpsichord – a sort of organist’s domestic
practice instrument – and the lute-harpsichord or
Lautenclavicymbel,
a keyboard instrument, commissioned to Bach’s own specifications and
designed to emulate the lute. The modern copy of an eighteenth-century
instrument on which Michele Barchi plays the Suites in e minor and
g minor, BWV996-7 sounds exactly like a large lute, complete even
with what sounds like fingering noises, combined with a harpsichord.
There’s some potential confusion in that the folder labelled as BWV997
begins with a track labelled as part of BWV996. Ignore what the track
says; the folder does contain BWV997 and only BWV997 – BWV996
is contained complete in the folder labelled as such.
It’s perfectly feasible to play these two suites on the lute, as on
Jacob Lindberg’s very fine BIS recording (BIS-CD-587/8) but it’s interesting
to hear the lute-harpsichord in action. The guitar, too, especially
one with an extended bass range, has also been used to good effect
in these works. Segovia and John Williams spring to mind, yet, though
Segovia performed the
allemande and
bouréé
from BWV996 and the lute Prelude, BWV999, and John Williams has recorded
BWV995-7 complete, some of the Bach transcriptions that both have
performed have come from elsewhere than these lute suites. Even Julian
Bream, who recorded BWV996 and 998 on the guitar, raided the Violin
Partitas for the programme on EMI 5551232 and his RCA recordings,
solo and with George Malcolm seem, sadly, to have disappeared without
trace, though they remain in my mind – and, happily in my CD
collection – as my benchmarks for this music.
Luca Pianca’s performances in the remaining suites on the lute are
not quite in the same category as Julian Bream – or, indeed,
of Barchi on the lute-harpsichord – but they are satisfying,
if slightly lacking in colour. He’s perhaps at his best in BWV1006a,
the ‘borrowed’ lute version of the Violin Partita BWV1006,
another work associated in guitar format with Segovia, John Williams
and Julian Bream, especially the third movement
gavotte en rondeau.
Though a lover of the lute, I have to admit that, while Pianca does
his best here, the greater sonority of the guitar makes the music
sound more colourful.
Turn to Stephan Schmidt’s recording of BWV1006a, coupled with
BWV995-1000 on a 10-string guitar with extended bass and you’ll
see what I mean about the extra sonority. This 2-CD set (Naïve
V4861) is about as good as it gets for a complete set on the guitar.
Subscribers to the valuable Naxos Music Library can listen to it there
and it can be downloaded in mp3 and lossless sound from
eclassical.com.
With a lossless copy for domestic playing and an mp3 CDR for use
in the car, I’ve earmarked this very enjoyable programme for
a review in a future Download News. (See
Download
News 2013/5).
The
Violin Sonatas and
Partitas, BWV1001-6, are performed
by Thomas Zehetmair (P 1983), a recording formerly available on a
competitive Ultima budget twofer. Purists who are attracted to the
Complete Edition by the preponderance of period performances, however,
may find these interpretations a little too ripely romantic for their
taste.
The
Cello Suites, BWV1007-12, come from Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
a classic recording made for the Musical Heritage Society as long
ago as 1965. If the works for solo violin are likely to offend outright
purists, the opposite is true of these solo cello performances, which
some have found a little too unyieldingly dry and austere. I do think
his playing a little uncompromising and the brightly-lit recording
set off my mild tinnitus to the sort of level last experienced when
I used to sit on trainee teachers giving a lesson in a echoing gym
acoustic.
The best modern alternative would be Steven Isserlis on Hyperion CDA67541/2
(Recording of the Month –
review
– also CDA30001/2 – October 2010 Download
Roundup).
I had some issues with Angela East’s recording on Red Priest
RP006 –
review
– but I also found its challenge to some accepted performance
conventions, ably elucidated in an email which she sent me, stimulating.
The Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord, BWV1027-29, are performed
by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Herbert Tachezi (P 1969) and the Trio
Sonata, BWV1025 and Fuga in g, BWV1026, by Werner Erhardt (violin)
and Gerald Hambitzer (harpsichord) (P 1999). Harnoncourt and Tachezi
are joined by able partners in the sonatas for flute (violin) and
basso continuo, BWV1038/9. Those able partners include Leopold Stastny
who also performs the solo flute sonatas, BWV1030-35. All in all,
then, the chamber and instrumental music is in safe or very safe hands.
If you know any of Bach’s organ music it’s likely to be
the
Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV565, one of the fillers
on that Walcha
Art of Fugue recording, even though scholarly
opinion now doubts the attribution to Bach, so that’s where I
turned first to sample Ton Koopman’s recordings of the complete
œuvre, a series which was actually completed by the 1999
release of the Complete Edition. I don’t think that you will
be disappointed with that or any of the other recordings here, made
on a variety of suitable instruments, all listed with complete specifications
in the pdf booklet. BWV565 was recorded on the Schnitger organ of
Sankt Jakobi-Kirche in Hamburg, dating from 1689-93. It boasts two
32-foot pedal stops but Koopman doesn’t over-employ these to
produce the kind of ‘big organ’ sound which sometimes sinks
this piece under its weight.
Just at random I also tried the
Fantasia and Fugue in g minor,
BWV542, performed on the slightly later (1729-32) organ in the Grote
Kerk at Maasluis, and thought that equally impressive; again it’s
powerful without being too massive. Ton Koopman is currently working
through the whole Bach
opus in a set of fine recordings for
his own label, Challenge Classics – I currently have his 2-CD
recording of the Keyboard Partitas, BWV825-30 awaiting review (CC72574)
and recently
reviewed
his 2-CD set of the Violin and Keyboard Sonatas with Catherine Manson
(CC72560).
So far Koopman has wisely mostly avoided re-recording material which
he recorded for Erato, but I doubt whether his new recordings when
they appear will replace these, made in the late 1990s. There is,
indeed, a strong case for considering these organ recordings, the
contents of 16 CDs, as much the bedrock of the whole set as the cantatas.
There are, of course, highly recommendable alternatives, not least
on a rival set of mp3 recordings from Kevin Bowyer on Nimbus NI1721
(Bargain of the Month –
review),
an 8-CD set for which the tracks need first to be dragged onto your
hard drive.
That’s available from MusicWeb International for £23 post
free, so would serve as an inexpensive supplement to the Teldec USB.
You may also wish to consider supplementing Koopman’s performances
with some of the volumes of the excellent Hyperion series recorded
by Christopher Herrick – details from
hyperion-records.co.uk.
These can also be downloaded in mp3 or lossless sound for £7.99
each.
Koopman is the only begetter of all the organ music but the other
keyboard works are spread around a number of fine performers: in addition
to Gustav Leonhardt, there’s Zuzana R?ži?ková, Herbert
Tachezi, Alan Curtis, Scott Ross, Glen Wilson, Bob van Asperen, Andreas
Staier, Michele Barchi and Olivier Baumont.
All these performances are historically informed. Normally I don’t
like Bach on the modern piano, even from as eminent a performer as
András Schiff, but I make three exceptions and you may wish
to add them to your library to supplement these harpsichord performances.
Glenn Gould, wayward and ‘incorrect’ as he was, brings the
music to life, especially the
Goldberg Variations – see
my
review
and
review
by Geoff Molyneux of his first recording, reissued on Alto (ALC1164).
Better still in the
Goldbergs and elsewhere in Bach’s
keyboard music are Murray Perahia (Sony – single CD or in the
recent bumper 65-CD/5-DVD collection,
The First 40 Years) and
Angela Hewitt (Hyperion CDA67305 –
review).
The performance of the
Goldberg Variations on the Teldec USB
is one of the oldest recordings included, played in 1965 with tasteful
decoration by Gustav Leonhardt on a 1962 copy of a 1745 instrument.
That’s the equivalent of the Neolithic period in terms of historically
informed practice, when the likes of George Malcolm were playing monster
harpsichords, so Leonhardt must have sounded unbelievably gentle by
comparison; indeed, Lionel Salter (1967), though praising the performance
commented on the restraint of the registration. That doesn’t
mean that he doesn’t bring variety of approach to the different
variations; I found the performance as enjoyable as any that I’ve
heard and the recording hardly show its age. Even if you decide not
to buy the Complete Edition, the separate release of this performance
of the
Goldbergs (details at end of review) should be on your
shopping list.
At 47:41 Leonhardt doesn’t include repeats – for those you
need Matthew Halls’ recent version from Linn, which runs over
to a second CD (CKD356). My only doubt about that very impressive
recording was whether most listeners would want a version which runs
to 91 minutes –
March
2010 Download Roundup.
The
English and
French Suites, here shuffled in order
and interspersed, were recorded by Alan Curtis in 1980 (though not
released in the UK till 1989) on a 1728 Zell harpsichord. I compared
them with a new recording of the English Suites by Richard Egarr on
Harmonia Mundi, downloaded in 24-bit sound from
eclassical.com,
where it’s also available less expensively in mp3 and 16-bit
lossless (HMU90 7591/2). I’ve had time only to dip into the Egarr
recording – look out for a full review in a forthcoming Download
News.
These suites are often regarded as small beer by comparison with the
Goldbergs but both Curtis and Egarr, by not trying to make
the music sound greater than it is, present very enjoyable performances.
Ideas of tempo vary quite widely between the two players – if,
as I’ve seen suggested, Egarr’s timings are canonical, those
of Curtis are not; in fact, however, I very much enjoyed both recordings.
Some of the Teldec recordings are less than top recommendations. I
wouldn’t, for example, go for these versions of the
Violin
Concertos as a first choice (Nikolaus and Alice Harnoncourt
et
al, from 1982 in the regular BWV1041-3 plus 1056R and 1060R on
Volume 144), though they are much more than adequate and they would
make a good period-instrument foil to any modern-instrument version
which you may have.
As I was considering the alternatives, Harmonia Mundi released a new
recording from Petra Müllejans and Gottfried von der Golz, with
the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (HMC902145) to which I listened in
a 24-bit download from
eclassical.com;
could this newly-released album be the ideal period-instrument alternative
for these concertos?
In fact, it isn’t a direct replacement: both include the three
‘standard’ concertos, BWV1041-3, but the Teldec concludes
with BWV1054R and BWV1060R, the latter a reconstruction for violin
and oboe, both convincing alternative versions of works which exist
only as keyboard concertos. The new recording instead offers the putative
three-violin original of BWV1064R, less commonly performed but another
convincing reconstruction of a concerto which survives for three keyboard
instruments. In hard economic terms, that would give the Teldec at
73 minutes the advantage over the new release’s 61 minutes if
we were comparing two single-disc versions.
Performance-wise, however, the new recording has all the energy that
I thought slightly wanting from the Harnoncourts on Teldec. There’s
sensitivity, too, especially in the slow movements, without making
these sound sentimental, and the recording has the advantage of modern
sound, with the download available in mp3 and 16-bit lossless and
for a little more in better-than-CD 24/96 lossless. I see that I’m
not alone in regarding this new release very highly: one magazine
has already awarded an ‘outstanding’ accolade and Simon
Thompson has made it a
Recording
of the Month.
Teldec include elsewhere BWV1064R in a performance by Christopher
Hirons, Monica Huggett and Catherine Mackintosh with the Academy of
Ancient Music conducted by Christopher Hogwood, a 1985 recording borrowed
from Decca on CD153 of the Complete Edition. The latter sounds lighter
in tone than the new recording – not entirely a matter of recording
differences: the Freiburgers tend to have a fuller sound than other
period ensembles. Both are enjoyable, with sprightly outer movements
and full weight – slightly more, but not too much weight, from
the Freiburgers – in the slow movement.
You may find yourself wondering why some of the folders on the USB
are empty. The Mass in A, BWV234, is actually contained in the folder
for its predecessor in F, BWV233 – it would have been better
to have labelled the folder with both numbers and omitted that for
BWV234 – and the three settings of the
Sanctus, BWV239-241,
are regarded as spurious, which begs the question why folders for
them were included; they are not listed in the pdf booklet, so you
wouldn’t think of searching for them.
Several of these recordings have recently been reissued separately,
mostly as part of Teldec’s
das alte Werk 50th anniversary
celebrations and some have been reviewed here on MusicWeb International:
• 2564611372: Double concertos (with concertos by Bach’s
sons): Leonhardt and Harnoncourt –
review
and
review
of earlier release;
• 2564694575: Orchestral Suites: Harnoncourt;
• 2564694757: Musical Offering: Harnoncourt;
• 2564698534: Art of Fugue: Tachezi;
• 2564608162: Cello Suites: Harnoncourt;
• 2564698532: Goldberg Variations: Leonhardt;
• 2564692817: Complete organ Music: Koopman;
• 2564679404: Selection of organ toccatas and fugues: Koopman;
• 2564698540: Christmas Oratorio: Harnoncourt;
• 2564696467:
Magnificat (with Handel): Harnoncourt;
• 2564698538: b minor Mass: Harnoncourt;
• 2564690571:
Missa (1733): Harnoncourt –
review;
• 2564696444: St John Passion: Harnoncourt;
• 2564692592: Cantatas 208 and 212: Harnoncourt
• 2564690468: Lutheran Masses: Corboz
Though these reissues are at budget– or lower middle-price, typically
around £5-7, with 2-CD sets around £8, as with the downloads
of the cantatas you wouldn’t need to purchase too many to be
approaching the price of the Complete Edition.
I’ve mentioned the comprehensive track-listing 354-page booklet
with performer details and dates, which you can use as an index to
the programme, but there is another pdf index where the music is listed
by BWV number as well as an Excel spread-sheet which works in the
same way. In addition there are very useful shorter booklets of notes
for each of the major works:
Brandenburg Concertos,
Orchestral
Suites,
Art of Fugue and
St Matthew Passion.
All in all, then, I cannot imagine any lover of Bach not thinking
this an excellent bargain. With very few exceptions the performances
are among the best available, the 320kb/s mp3 sound is much more than
acceptable and the presentation is comparable to that offered with
the physical box set. Even if you already have a considerable library
of Bach recordings – and even if you own some of these works
in these Teldec performances – this merits a strong recommendation.
There isn’t a category for USB of the Month; if there were, this
would be it. Even sampling this wonderful set has taken me several
weeks – you’ll see from some of my comments that I started
before Holy Week and I’m completing this review a week after
Easter – but I have found the whole experience very enjoyable.
Brian Wilson
Details
Performers include:
Alice Harnoncourt, Thomas Zehetmair, John Holloway (violin)
Herbert Tachezi (organ and harpsichord)
Zuzana Růžičková, Alan Curtis, Scott Ross, Glen Wilson,
Bob van Asperen, Andreas Staier, Michele Barchi (harpsichord and lute
harpsichord); Olivier Baumont (harpsichord)
Luca Pianca (lute)
Frans Brüggen (recorder and transverse flute)
Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute)
Jordi Savall (viola da gamba)
Jaap ter Linden (cello)
Lisa Larsson (soprano)
Paul Esswood, Tom Sutcliffe, James Bowman, Elisabeth von Magnus (alto)
Kurt Equiluz, Nigel Rogers, Gerd Türk (tenor)
Karl Riddersbusch, Max van Egmond, Michael Schopper, Klaus Mertens
(bass)
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Wiener Sängerknaben; Chorus Viennensis
Regensburger Domchor; King’s College Choir, Cambridge
Concentus Musicus Wien/Nikolaus Harnoncourt (cello)
Leonhardt Consort/Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord)
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir/Ton Koopman (organ and harpsichord)
Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
Concerto Amsterdam/Jaap Schröder
Musica Antiqua Köln/Reinhard Goebel
Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra/André Rieu
Kammerorchester Berlin; Staatskapelle Dresden/Peter Schreier (tenor)
Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim/Fritz Werner
Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne; Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne/Michel
Corboz
Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford; Academy of Ancient Music/Simon
Preston
Tragicomedia/Stephen Stubbs
Ars Antiqua Austria/Gunnar Letzbor
Stockholm Bach Choir/Anders Öhrwall
Rundfunkchor Berlin/Robin Gritton
354-page pdf booklet included (but no texts: these are available at
www.bach-cantatas.com).
[also available as 153 CDs plus one DVD: 2564 66420-2]
[equivalent to 153 CDs plus one DVD]
