RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
The Complete Bach Edition
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]
WARNER TELDEC 2564 66112-7 USB [equivalent to 153 CDs plus one DVD]
This USB is planned for special release on Record Store Day, 20 April 2013,
at £120; thereafter it will be available from amazon.co.uk 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
A splendid bargain; if there were a category for USB of the Month, this would
be it.