Few works by Johann Sebastian Bach have given rise to more research and speculation than the 'Sei Solo', the sonatas and partitas for solo violin. From the search for models to dating based on stylistic features, from the identification of the paper used for the autograph from 1720 to the mysticism of numbers, no stone has been left unturned to solve the numerous riddles posed by this exorbitant work. The pieces in this collection are exorbitant in several respects. Not only does Bach go beyond what was customary at the time in terms of length, but the musical content and technical demands are also unprecedented, both in the context of contemporary violin music by other composers and within Bach's own oeuvre. As so often in Bach's oeuvre, an entire musical cosmos is explored in a single work.

On its second CD, the piano duo Neeb presents works that illustrate the beginning of an auspicious period in the life of various composers: Full of creative energy, Max Reger threw himself into creative work after surviving years of health and mental strain. Franz Schubert fared similarly after an attack of syphilis, who, in addition to a permanent position at Esterházy Palace, was even inspired to new creative vigour by a secret love. Johann Sebastian Bach was motivated to write new concert repertoire by conducting the high-calibre Collegium Musicum, while Rachmaninov overcame his depression with the Suite op. 17, which had prevented him from composing for three years after the failure of his first symphony. The piano duo Neeb illuminate these emotional worlds in their intelligent interpretation - with creative imagination and effervescent joy of playing.

On this latest release in the Guitar Laureate series, Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo, winner of the 2022 European Bach Guitar Award, presents a selection of works transcribed for guitar from the rich repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach. Dimitrov-Jojo’s beautiful sound and poetic interpretations bring an intimate connection to Bach’s boundless imagination, crowned in this substantial programme by the famous Ciaconna, BWV 1004.

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.

A once abandoned Passion project by J. S. Bach? Harpsichordist and conductor Alexander Grychtolik, together with the Il Gardellino Orchestra, embarks on a captivating artistic experiment with this presentation of the Passion Oratorio BWV Anh. 169. The starting point for the partial reconstruction attempt and the completion of the work is the surviving libretto by the poet Picander from 1725. This unique endeavor draws the audience into a profound exploration of human empathy with the poignant suffering of Jesus and sheds light on a passion aesthetic we had not seen previously in Bach's repertoire.

“[Bach] speaks to us in his work in such clear terms that we may quite well call these fugues poems. (…) These have warmth, quiet joy, love. And running through all the poems, dressed in different guises, is the main theme, creating order, binding the work as a whole together: it is a safe bond in all its diversity. Over all lies the proximity of death.” (Enzio Forsblom)

In this new recording, Bach’s final magnum opus is played by Aapo Häkkinen on a harpsichord built in 1614 by Andreas Ruckers the Elder (1579–?1652) and which belonged to the composer John Blow (1649–1708), organist of Westminster Abbey and former teacher of Henry Purcell. A tradition exists that G.F. Handel had also played this harpsichord.

“Concertos Without Orchestra” is the concept of the young Turkish pianist Sa­lih Can Gevrek, Associate Artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, for his first CD recording. He presents two mirrored works, both of which are imbued with references to the musical style and structure of concertos with orchestra. J. S. Bach’s famous Italian Concerto is subtly linked to Schumann’s lesser known but equally virtuoso Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op. 14, also known as the “Concerto without orchestra”. Rachmaninov’s rarely recorded Moments musicaux com­plete this musical panorama to commemorate the 80th anniversary of his death. This recording offers the listener a real voyage through the Baroque, Romantic and post-Romantic periods, drama and poetry expressed in music supply the connection between these three very different works.

How fascinating must it have sounded when Johann Sebastian Bach competed with an entire orchestra at the organ? Under the direction of Jörg Halubek, the baroque ensemble il Gusto Barocco becomes a musical think tank. Together, they attempt to reconstruct three of Bach's organ concertos, which today are primarily treated as harpsichord concertos. The recordings of the soloist ensemble presented here convey a tangible and unique impression thereof.

Vox Luminis has teamed up with the Freiburger Barockorchester again, and together they celebrate music for Ascension Day. This topic inspired great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, four of whose Ascension cantatas have been preserved. The festive and colourful Cantata BWV 128 was composed towards the end of Bach’s second year in Leipzig. The Ascension Oratorio BWV 11 was written for larger forces and ends with a triumphant chorus. In the case of Georg Philipp Telemann, more than thirty cantatas for Ascension Day alone have survived. The cantata Ich fahre auf zu meinem Vater (I ascend unto my Father) was composed in 1721. Lionel Meunier’s ensemble and the FBO give a fervent rendering of this captivating music with its texts focusing on the afterlife.

The profound and delightful Partitas, Bach’s Opus 1, sparkle in Eleonor Bindman’s brilliant performance. Her unhurried tempos bring out the twists, turns and quick modulations of the dance movements and preludes of this unparalleled set of six suites — famous in Bach’s day and today for their vitality and depth. Bindman’s spirited recording enriches the listener’s experience by revealing the power and emotional nuances of the suites. One of Bach’s favorite forms, the suite, or partita, incorporates lively, stately, graceful and stirring dances introduced by an opening movement — with a different title in each suite: Praeludium, Sinfonia, Toccata, Fantasia, Ouverture and Praeambulum. The scope of these works is vast — melody, harmony and counterpoint blending in sonorous combinations that surprise, fascinate and enchant. According to Bach’s first biographer, J.N. Forkel, “Such excellent compositions for the clavier [keyboard] had never been seen and heard before. Anyone who had learnt to perform well some pieces out of them could make his fortune in the world thereby.”

Past praise for Eleonor's Bindman's other recent Bach recording projects:

Bach: Cello Suites (transcribed for piano by E. Bindman):

Bindman takes him quite literally, transcribing in the register he wrote in, mostly, and clearly with enjoyment. Her tempos are sometimes faster than a cellist’s fingers might find practical, but her musical sense is excellent.

-- American Record Guide

The Brandenburg Duets (arr. for piano duet by E. Bindman):

These transcriptions are not easy to play, but Bindman and Lin are up to the task. Fast movements are played crisply, but not with brittleness, although the pianists play the opening movement of the Sixth Concerto in a more legato fashion, and use the sustaining pedal—a necessary choice, Bindman writes, given the concerto’s violin-less scoring. The slow movements are not Romanticized, but are duly lyrical. The two pianists equally divvy up the primo and secondo parts.

-- Fanfare

Part of the Thuringia Cantat series which documents the musical diversity in this German region, this album brings attention to and honors a composer who died at the young age of 18 and has since been overlooked by today’s cultural memory: Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.; For the first time on CPO, the young prince’s concertos are being presented in complete form. In addition to his concertos, the album includes the harpsichord transcriptions of Bach based on these compositions.; This project was supervised and designed by musicologist Dr. Manfred Fechner of Jena, who also wrote the very informative and user-friendly booklet text.

Three instruments, three emblematic works, and three excellent soloists! With Sophie Gent on violin, Frank Theuns on traverso and Bertrand Cuiller on harpsichord, Les Muffatti offer a fresh interpretation of Bach's Triple Concerto, the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the Orchestral Suite in B minor. They provide a variety of orchestral textures, appropriate to the more soloistic style in the Brandenburg Concerto, and the alternating ripieno-tutti settings in the Triple Concerto and the Suite.

While the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto was composed during Bach's time in Köthen and can be regarded as the first piano concerto ever written, the other two works date from his later years in Leipzig. In these works, Bach exploits the full range of compositional possibilities he had acquired during his lifetime; the highly individual combination of contrapuntal artistry and heightened expressiveness already points to the works composed in the last years of his life.

Les Muffatti have been one of the leading artists on the Ramée label from its beginnings; this, their tenth album for Ramée, also marks the label’s 20th anniversary.

Described as the ‘Pianists’ Old Testament’, The Well-Tempered Clavier is a collection of pieces of exceptional artistic quality. No other work from the baroque period has been as valued, performed and studied as this collection whose objectives were musical, theoretical and didactic.

Both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier feature a prelude and fugue in each of the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale, covering each of the 24 major and minor modes – a unique body of works. No two preludes or fugues are alike; they display the full range of contrapuntal devices, while the preludes offer an infinite variety of melodic, rhythmic and constructional possibilities. Each of these pieces demonstrates a mastery of counterpoint that never takes precedence over emotion, beauty and aesthetics. With the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach established himself as the unrivalled master of the fugue genre.

Following his recordings of Bach’s concertos for one and two harpsichords (BIS-2041, BIS 2051 and BIS-2481), which reviewers have praised for his unaffected playing and acute musicianship, Masato Suzuki now offers us his take on this Bach monument.

Summits of the violin repertory, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin have always fascinated performers and music lovers alike for their architectural perfection, their spiritual content and the breadth of their emotional palette. It is therefore not surprising that, like so many of Bach’s works, they have been constantly arranged for other instruments. On a purely practical level, there are elements in the writing of these works that seem to suit the guitar particularly well, with its polyphony, melody, dynamics and sound colours that lend themselves particularly well to the complexity of works that seem to go beyond the solo violin.

After his transcription for guitar of Bach’s four lute suites (BIS-2285), which BBC Music Magazine described as ‘a remarkable combination of technical ease, musical understanding and emotional directness’, Franz Halász now offers us his own arrangements of the Sonatas and Partitas – fresh performances that combine historically informed practice with modern technique.

Halász appears on a number of acclaimed discs for BIS, in wide-ranging repertoire, from Spanish baroque music to the contemporary works of Takemitsu and Gubaidulina, as well as tango and Brazilian music.