Tenebrae bring their trademark passion and precision to this live performance of music by J. S. Bach and Sir James MacMillan, to be recorded live at Snape Maltings in May 2023. Renowned for their technical difficulty,
Bach’s motets are pillars of the choral repertoire, requiring minute attention to detail as well as a full emotional range. Here, Tenebrae performs the three most well-known of the set, culminating in the joyful Singet dem Herrn. Like Bach, Sir James MacMillan has written much of his music for the church, and his settings of the Tenebrae responsories paint a vivid picture of the events of Holy Week. This album also features the premiere recording of I saw Eternity the other night, which MacMillan composed for Tenebrae in 2021 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the London Bach Society.
Speaking on Bach and MacMillan, Nigel Short says“I am sure James will be as revered in 400 years’ time as Bach is today. On so many different levels, the contrast between the music of these two great composers could not be more dramatic. What both composers have in abundance, though, is an utter devotion to their religious faiths. This total conviction displays itself in their music, leaving the listener in no doubt as to their commitment to creating music imbued with every ounce of passion and precision. I hope listeners will enjoy and feel the sense of excitement and energy we as performers always feed off in concert, and that this performance in the beautiful venue of Snape Maltings will stand the test of time and be heard by music-lovers for centuries to come.”
BACH Preludium in C, BWV 846/1. Toccata in c, BWV 911. Praeludium in E?, BWV 1010/1. Prelude for Cembalo, BWV 998. Praeludium in c, BWV 999. Partita in c, BWV 997. Sonata in a, BWV 1003. Sarabande in g, BWV 995/4 • Luca Guglielmi (fp) • PIANO 62 (66:47)
As a keyboardist, Johann Sebastian Bach clearly deserves the renown that he attained even during his lifetime, for his compositions and facile playing style. Although much has been recorded on both organ and harpsichord, Bach’s relationship with the newer or more unusual instruments, the fortepiano and clavichord (which, of course, was not so new in the early 18th century), has been the subject of some scholarly work. To be sure, the harpsichord came in a rather substantial variety of forms, and certainly the terms often used during the time, “cembalo” or “Klavier,” were mostly generic rather than instrument-specific, but Bach himself had some interest in the newer keyboards. For example, he sold a Silbermann fortepiano in 1749, a couple of years after he had performed on one at the court in Potsdam. His complaint to the maker about the quality of the fortepiano has often been quoted, but there is no doubt that he knew it well. Moreover, one of his students, Johann Friedrich Agricola, noted that he used to play the clavichord on occasion, mainly for improvising smaller chamber works.
Today, one finds that the various interpretations of Bach’s keyboard works on both older and more contemporary 20th-century instruments can be found in abundance. Luca Guglielmi’s disc adds a slight twist to this crowd by playing a number of small works on three instruments that would have been known by the composer; an Italian fortepiano modeled after a Cristofori original from 1726, a German Silbermann copy from the 1749 model; and a German clavichord after a 1784 Hubert instrument. All of these are tuned so that A=415 Hz, a tuning that would not have been unfamiliar to the composer. Given that these are familiar and oft-recorded works, the main purpose of this disc is to delineate how Bach’s works might have sounded on the three instruments with which he may have been familiar. The eldest is the Cristofori, which is used for the Toccata in C Minor. It has a somewhat stringy and transparent sound. Guglielmi doesn’t stress the action too much, preferring an easy-going tempo, particularly in the fugue. I find that the middle registers of the instrument sometimes are a bit thick, but this does not interfere appreciably with the delineation of the lines. The Silbermann, on the other hand, is a brighter, more resonant instrument. In the opening Praeludium, for example, the broken chords have each tone sustained, almost as if there was a resonating set of sympathetic strings. This may be in part due to Guglielmi’s stately playing, which allows for the resonance to coalesce into subtly dissolving waves of sound. In the C-Minor Partita, the texture is a bit darker, and perhaps a bit more harpsichord-like. The Gigue, for example, has a nice triplet figuration in the middle register, which sometimes outshines the bass line. The two pieces played on the clavichord are far more tinny and have a sort of plucked instrument quality of sound, almost as if they are being played on a mandolin. In the Fugue of the A-Minor Sonata, for instance, the soft sound is like being played through cotton, with little or no resonance at all, and yet the instrumental sounds have a nice attack that allows each line to come through.
As for the performance, Guglielmi is stately and cautious with his tempos, deliberately allowing for the tone qualities of his instruments to come forward. His phrasing is quite well done and conforms to the often subtle shifts in thematic structure of the works. Given the eclectic nature of the music, this may not be a disc for everyone, but certainly those interested in Bach and the fortepiano/clavichord will find this disc more than just an archival curiosity. It is a fine study in the timbre of Bach’s time.
It was Antje Weithaas’ own idea to jointly record Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in conjunction with Eugene Ysaye’s six solo violin sonatas. “The works by Bach are rather well-known,” she remarks. “But what about the Ysaye sonatas? Ysaye is invariably shoved into the virtuoso corner, but as a composer he is to be taken quite seriously!” These solo works by Bach inspired Belgian violin celebrity Eugene Ysaye to write his Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, op. 27, dedicating each one of them to a great violinist of his time. Ysaye is regarded as the main representative of the Franco-Flemish violin school, closely associated with the fin-de-siecle period when architecture was awash with flowery ornaments. In painting and poetry, meanwhile, symbolism and sensuality abounded. Artists either adored or detested Wagner, who became the main subject of musical discussions throughout Europe. Ysaye is said to have conceived the plan of the Six Violin Sonatas within the course of one day in 1924, when he was 66 years old.
Bach - Orchestral Transcriptions By Respighi And Elgar
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Mar 27, 2012
This exciting disc makes a very welcome return to the catalog on Naxos. The Respighi transcriptions reveal his typical mastery of orchestration, particularly in the larger pieces: the Prelude and Fugue BWV 532 and the great Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582. The chorale transcriptions are also very lovely, and include the famous “Wachet auf” (“Sleepers Awake!”) BWV 645. In the Sonata BWV 1023, Ilkka Talvi proves a sensitive and musicianly soloist as well. However, the real treat is Elgar’s arrangement of the Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV 537. It’s insane. In the fugue, next to Elgar’s tambourine, glockenspiel, harp glissandos, and looney trumpet licks, Stokowski’s Bach might as well be the work of a period-instrument specialist. It’s wonderful, and Gerard Schwarz gets his players to blast their way through the piece with total conviction. The sonics also constitute one of the better efforts from this source and era (1990). Buy it and love it.
Bach - Reger: Sonatas for Cello (Viol) and Piano, Vol. 1
Musicaphon
CD
$8.49$16.99Save 50%May 01, 2020
The sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as the sonatas for cello and piano by Max Reger represent lonely summit heights in their respective epochs. This justifies juxtaposing these works in an overall recording and not only encyclopedically publishing Bach or Reger lively. Recorded for this volume are the two first works of the genre by the young cellist Martin Rummel, who is now represented on Musicaphon with nine albums and who repeatedly creates "fascination with his brilliant playing" (Kronenzeitung) and "concerts of superlatives" (Süddeutsche Zeitung). He is accompanied by Elizabeth Hopkins, who has already been rated as a "brilliant pianist" by the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Bach and Bartók: Lucerne Festival, Vol. 17 / Anda & Haskil
Audite Musikproduktion
CD
$7.49$14.99Save 50%Mar 04, 2022
Géza Anda performed regularly at the Lucerne International Music Festival from 1955-1969. Only from this period three recordings have survived, which are published here for the first time in their entirety. These are the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra BWV 1061 by Johann Sebastian Bach from the festival year 1955 and the 3rd Piano Concerto by Béla Bartók from 1965. Clara Haskil and Herbert von Karajan were Anda's partners for Bach, and Ernest Ansermet for Bartók, who was heard here for the last time in Lucerne. Also featured is Bartók's 2nd Piano Concerto, which Anda played with his favorite conductor Ferenc Fricsay before an enthusiastic audience. audite presents this important gap in the Anda discography in cooperation with the Géza Anda Foundation Zurich, Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), Salzburg's Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute, and Lucerne Festival.
The Leipzig Autograph opens with a Fantasia on Komm, Heiliger Geist (Come, Holy Ghost), in organo pleno, il canto fermo nel pedale (for full organ, the chorale melody in the pedal part). The chorale itself is a German version of the antiphon Veni, Sancte Spiritus, devised by Martin Luther for congregational use. An imitative contrapuntal introduction, in which three upper voices enter in turn over a sustained pedal-note, leads to the chorale melody itself, in the lowest register, chorale phrases separated with passages of varying length for the manuals. A second treatment of the same chorale, for two manuals and pedals, is in triple metre, with a fugal subject derived from the chorale, the manuals preceding the pedal entry in each section. This extended composition ends with a particularly splendid coda. An Wasserflüssen Babylon (By the waters of Babylon), for two manuals and pedals, uses a fifteenth century chorale melody from Strasburg. .Here the chorale melody is first heard in the top part, imitated in the tenor, which itself introduces the continuation of the chorale theme. This is followed by Schmücke, dich, o liebe Seele (Deck thyself, beloved soul), much admired by Schumann and based on a mid-seventeenth century chorale, first suggested in the alto part in a contrapuntal introduction, before appearing in the soprano in augmentation, its notes prolonged. The Trio on Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend (Lord Jesus Christ, turn to us) is again based on a mid-seventeenth century chorale. Here the three contrapuntal parts interweave, the left hand entering in canonic imitation of the right over a pedal-part derived from the opening notes of the chorale. This opening figure brings, in conclusion, a pedal statement of the melody, accompanied by the continuing counterpoint of the two upper parts. O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (O Lamb of God, guiltless, slaughtered on the Cross) is based on a Lutheran version of the Agnus Dei, O Lam Gades unschüldig, by Nikolaus Decius, an early follower of Luther. This, one of the earliest chorales, is itself derived from plainchant. The three sections of the Agnus Dei allow three different treatments of the cantus firmus, which appears first in the top part, then in the middle part and finally in the pedals. Nun danket alle Gott (Now thank we all our God) is based on a seventeenth century chorale. Counterpoint based on the melody precedes the entry of the chorale itself in the upper part, a procedure that is followed throughout, in the manner associated particularly with Bach's elder brother's teacher, Pachelbel. Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (From God I will not part) treats a sixteenth century chorale dating from 1572 in Erfurt. Here again each section of the melody, played on the pedals, is introduced by a preceding contrapuntal section derived from the hymn itself. The C major Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, striking not least in the distinctive nature of the three sections into which it falls, in form the counterpart of the three movement Italian concerto of the period. The work opens with a brilliant improvisatory prelude, display on the manuals followed by a passage for pedal solo, before more elaborate counterpoint involving manuals and pedals. There follows an Adagio aria, slowing in a concluding recitative, before a capricious fugue subject, interrupted by abrupt rests, a characteristic that naturally recurs, as the four parts enter, in descending order.
Nunkomm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Saviour of the Heathen) appears in three versions. The chorale on which it is based is Martin Luther's adaptation of the original Ambrosian hymn Veni Redemptor gentium. The first of these, for two manuals and pedals, opens with the first measures of the chorale theme in the tenor, imitated at once in the alto register, over a constantly moving pedal bass. The melody is then elaborated in the upper part to form an ornamented line. The second treatment of the chorale is in the form of a Trio, three melodic lines, one for each hand and one for the pedals. Here a contrapuntal imitative opening by the two lower parts is followed by the appearance of the ornamented chorale theme, to which the two lower parts provide a postlude in conclusion. The third version of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland is described as in organo pleno, il canto fermo nel pedale (for full organ, with the chorale melody in the pedal part). An introductory contrapuntal passage derived from the chorale leads to the solemn appearance of the chorale itself in the lowest register, successive pedal entries preceded by similar prefatory passages. The canonic variations on Vom Himmel hoch (From Heaven on high) were apparently written in 1747 and offered by Bach when he was admitted to the polymath Lorenz Christoph Mizler von Kolof's Correspondierenden Societät der Musicalischen Wissenschaften (Corresponding Society of the Musical Sciences). Bach was the fourteenth of a membership limited to twenty scholars and musicians, including, among those now better remembered, Telemann and Handel. The Christmas chorale by Martin Luther first appears in the pedal part of a Canon at the Octave that involves the two upper parts in such canonic imitation. The cantus firmus is again heard in the pedals, in the second Canon at the Fifth, followed by the chorale melody itself in canon at the sixth and in inversion in the lower voice, accompanied by a moving pedal part. Once the chorale has been heard in this form, Bachadds a canon at the third, with the upper part entering first with an inversion of the melody. A canon at the second follows, between the pedal bass and tenor in inversion, and then, at the ninth, between a pedal inversion and the top voice. This varied treatment of the cantus firmus itself leads to a Canon at the Seventh between the pedals and tenor. A Canon in Augmentation sets an augmented tenor part in canon with a more rapid upper part, with the steadier chorale melody introduced by the pedals. The Canonic Variations constitute a remarkable technical and musical tour de force.
On this album Margaret Donaghue Flavin transcribes some of Bach's greatest music for solo clarinet. Classics Today raved, "Her main strength lies in her ability to completely disappear in the role, letting the music emerge with all of it's natural grace and refinement."
This recording is a reflection of several performances that took place over time and in varying acoustic environments, including collaborations with contemporary and aerial/vertical dance.
The Cage works tend to be binary in form, and while meditatively free flowing in spirit, the architecture is clean and easily understood. The Bach works—four movements that make up a sonata—offer a multitude of interpretive options, including an approach that wanders through the harmonic labyrinth without regard to pulse and traditional notions of time, magnifying minute rhetorical statements along the way. It can be such that the Bach works represent the dreamscape while the atonal prepared piano pieces of Cage represent structure. This might be in opposition to many listeners’ expectations.
French pianist Lise de la Salle's new album is an outstanding, shining and subtle concept album built around Bach's music. Lise de la Salle selected pieces of Bach and works composed as a tribute to the giant of Leipzig: Busoni, Liszt, Roussel e.a. Four additional pieces have been commissioned to French classical and jazz pianist Thomas Enhco. Since 2001, Lise de la Salle has enjoyed an impressive international career that has seen her perform in every leading concert hall in Europe, the United States and Asia. She works closely with the conductors Fabio Luisi, James Conion and Osmo Vanska, among others, and has also played under the direction of Ludovic Morlot, James Gaffigan, Sir Andrew Davis, and others. She is regularly invited to perform with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Her previous albums have garnered her critical acclaim.
Bach, Corea, Davis, Piazzolla & Vivaldi: Baroque in Blue
Berlin Classics
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Jun 03, 2022
Eckart Runge and Jacques Ammon, who with their last album "Revolutionary Icons" already explored the field of tension between Beethoven and the rock/pop heroes Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse and David Bowie, now devote themselves to the baroque and jazz. A closer look reveals how many connections there are despite the 200 yeas in between and what bridges ca be built between the two styles: "Walking basso continuo", the joy of the spontaneous and the high art of improvisation. From Vivaldi to Amanti, from bach to Miles Davis and from Gluck to George Gershwin - an outstanding potpourri of the highest musical quality on cello and piano.
This 3CD collection highlights past releases by the young renowned recorder and blockflöte virtuoso, early music specialist and OehmsClassics artist Stefan Temmingh. CD1, ‘Corelli À la Mode’, features, among other works, the groundbreaking op. 5 sonatas in world premiere recordings of the 18th c. ornamented versions. CD2, ‘The Gentleman’s Flute, follows on with works by Handel and the last disc features select excerpts from the French and English works by J.S. Bach and other Bach miscellany.
As the progenitor of a style whose influence more or less came to define the instrumental music of the High Baroque, Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713) occupies a position in music history as unenviable as it is to his great credit. Just what made Corelli’s style seem strikingly novel to his contemporaries is a tricky question. To be sure, his standardization and popularization of certain formal tropes – most notably the succession of movement types in Sonate da Camera and Sonate da Chiesa – was a significant part of what his followers considered the ‘Corellian’ manner.
But Corelli’s actual compositional style, his way of organizing musical thoughts into phrases and motives, is fundamentally derived from the expressive capabilities of his chosen instrument, the violin. Certain melodic patterns used to modulate and to effect sequences (e.g., chains of sevenths and fifths) basically derive from specificities of violin technique that amplify an instrument with origins primarily in dance music into one that in Corelli’s hands, could imitate the rise and fall of the sung and spoken human voice. This tension between idiomatically instrumental techniques and the evocation of the voice is the defining characteristic of Corelli’s style throughout all his surviving works and would establish the “Roman School” as the supreme measure of musical taste for generations.
For this exploration of the 18th century’s Corelli Craze, the dynamic star trio of Mahan Esfahani, Hille Perl and Michala Petri unite to trace the Roman’s influence, (sometimes in name only...) on the musical legacies of Bach, Händel and Telemann, and of course two works from the pen of the celebrated Italian Master, himself. Gramophone about the Petri/Perl/Esfahani Trio’s Bach recording: “While the tonal and expressive range of the recorder, viol and harpsichord may appear constrained in comparison to, say, flute, cello and piano, in the hands of foremost players such as these, even a relatively lightweight work such as the C major Sonata, BWV1033, comes over as the ideal demonstration of a particular facet of the composer’s style and the performers’ abilities.”
One of the most fascinating challenges that any violinist can face is the repertoire for solo violin. In this genre of music, both the musician and the listener can encounter polyphonic masterpieces performed with minimal means - with only four strings. These pieces often carry as much emotional and musical meaning as works composed for a large orchestra. This rarely represented category in musical literature has always excited the artist Agata-Maria Raatz. She wondered how Bach managed to create such a remarkably complex and demanding harmonic as well as formal structure in his sonatas and partitas for solo violin, which are considered timeless masterpieces of extraordinary brilliance in every detail. Where did he draw his inspiration from? What music did he listen to? And who was he as a person? Bach was not only a genius, but also a human being. Monuments created to honour personalities of genius often obscure their humanity, which encompasses not only the outstanding and special, but also the mundane and prosaic of life.
The album "Echo of BACH" is her personal exploration through the history of solo music for violin, tracing its origins from the early Baroque period to the present. It is a musical journey centred on J. S. Bach, an inspiration to many generations of composers. On this unique path, the great master not only inspires, but is also influenced by the works of other musicians. Among them is a composer who might have been a guidepost for Bach on his musical path. It is the composer and violinist Jean Paul von Westhoff. Bach was 18 years old at the time, while Westhoff died only two years later at the age of 49. The probability is high that they met at that time and the young Bach became familiar with Westhoff's work. For her album she has chosen the Suite No. 5 in D minor. In addition to a piece composed by the artist especially for this CD under the pseudonym Clara Jaz, we also find the work "Cette âme a six ailes tout comme les Séraphins" (This soul has six wings like the Seraphim) composed by the Swiss composer Xavier Dayer especially for Agata-Maria Raatz.
There are certain texts which inspire composers more than others but there is one in particular that has provided us with sublime music ever since it appeared centuries ago—the Agnus Dei. This collection from The Sixteen celebrates some of the finest settings from the Renaissance through to the 20th century. Let time stand still whilst listening to the arching melismas and subtle imitation of settings by Tye and Sheppard; delight in the genius of Bach’s setting in the Mass in B minor; and revel in Poulenc’s soaring soprano solo at the opening to his Agnus Dei—so poignant, ethereal and effortlessly beautiful. Of course no collection of this type would be complete without Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei—probably one of the most famous settings ever written, certainly in recent times, and which rarely leaves a dry eye. From Tallis to Scarlatti and Rubbra to Britten, the variety of settings and musical language featured here is quite astounding and you may even discover an Agnus Dei that you haven’t heard before!
