This is Volume 2 in the anticipated complete set of Cantatas of JS Bach, performed by Cantata Collective, a period instrument vocal and instrumental ensemble based in San Francisco.

This album was released in the summer of 2023; it may not have been intended as a Christmas album, but it would make a wonderful purchase at that time.

The fourth volume of Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach works for organ series features one of the most important surviving instruments of Bach’s time, made by the German organ builder Christoph Treutmann the Elder. Widely known for its extraordinary tonal quality, the instrument was built between 1734 and 1737. A recent general restoration preserved all essential structural elements or renewed them, remaining faithful to the originals, making it an ideal instrument for Bach interpreters who wish to come close to the sound ideas of the Leipzig Thomaskantor.

Suzuki now takes up the Orgel-Büchlein (literally, ‘little organ book’), a collection of 45 short chorale preludes on melodies from the Lutheran hymn book, a project that came into being in connection with Bach’s appointment as organist and chamber musician at the Duke’s court in Weimar in 1708. Presenting chorales for different periods of the church year, this collection serves as a general guide to text-based composition focusing on specific word-sound relationships and content-specific musical expression. Two Preludes and Fugues complete the first volume dedicated to the Orgel-Büchlein, illustrating the principle of variety and structure historically practised by concert organists in order to demonstrate the tone colours and expressive possibilities of their instrument.

REVIEW:

The great Masaaki Suzuki’s traversal of Bach’s keyboard music is well underway, and several attractions have become clear. In general, he is a bit less concerned with a pearly surface and a bit more with direct expression. In works for organ, he has shown a willingness to delve into period instruments, and the one here is a real find. Suzuki is willing to take a bit of time to bring out its colors; there is nothing too radical, but there are subtle adjustments to the tempo throughout that define the profile of each little ornamented chorale, and all the performances are vivid. This album was released in the summer of 2023; it may not have been intended as a Christmas album, but it would make a wonderful purchase at that time.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

After several years of intensive preparation and many live concerts, Swiss pianist Oliver Schnyder has recorded the Goldberg Variations. He has recorded the cycle two times; it was only the second time that the result met his expectations. Rare recording of the cycle on a Bösendorfer grand piano.

The No. 1 choice for Bach aficionados – The master of subtle and elegant piano playing on the powerful-sounding "Manfred Bürki", a Steinway concert grand from 1901.

Established in the middle of pandemic by flutist Taya König-Tarasevich and cellist Bartolomeo Dandolo Marchesi, this ensemble rapidly captured the finest of next generation baroque musicians, and together got the reputation as one of world’s premier ensembles. On this debut album, The German Album, they bring well-known work from the baroque era by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann.

The three main works on the CD are favourite pieces of mine that I often listened to as a student. One is the Suite No. 1 in E minor, BWV 996, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Another piece that I have always liked immensely, and which I thought that I will one day learn is the "Valses Poeticos" by Enrique Granados, and in the same way, I had started the "Sonatine pour harpe" op. 30 by Marcel Tournier, but never finished it. I then developed a plan to make a CD in order to create an additional project for myself using these three pieces as a basis.

I combined the three great works by Bach, Granados and Tournier so that they became ‘pathfinders’, so to speak, with the Renaissance pieces by Mayone connecting these three longer pieces with one another. This has the effect of creating a larger whole that can be experienced as a single concept. -- Markus Folker Thalheimer

Music is and has always been a powerful means of expression and communication that goes beyond national borders. It is no different in the case of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann. Both composers drew inspiration not only from their native, German style but - like many of their contemporaries - also from other musical centres of 18th-century Europe, such as Italy and France. Their works were an important part of the music scene of that time and are still considered the quintessence of European Baroque music to this day. The pieces we have chosen have accompanied us since the beginning of our musical path and are a summary of our activities so far. They combine the orderly German structure of Bach's trio sonatas with the French elegance and splendor of Telemann's Paris Quartets. We hope you will enjoy the timeless beauty of these compositions and let us take you on an unforgettable musical journey. Très Animé is an early music ensemble founded in 2016 by four friends from Poznan. As soloists and chamber musicians they gained their skills at renowned european Academies of Music (including Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, Austria, Great Britain) and took part in many masterclasses under the guidance of eminent specialists in the performance of early music. From the beginning of their activity they obtained high marks at international competitions: Biagio Marini Competition Neuburg an der Donau (Germany, 2016), Göttingen Händel Competition (Germany, 2017) and International Van Wassenaer Competition in Utrecht (the Netherlands, 2018), where they received a finalist award. Très Animé enjoys collaborating with other instrumentalists, vocalists and dancers. They were brought together by Poznan - the city where they started their adventure with early music.

The eminent Martha Argerich is one of the most loved and admired classical pianists of all time. She quickly gained and maintained world-wide reputation for her exciting performances. This set is the 13th volume of DOREMI's special series of live performances and broadcasts Featuring the artistry of the young Martha Argerich.

There is an Icelandic saying, “mergur málsins”, which directly translates to “the marrow of the matter,” and these Suites, to me, speak directly to the essence of being human. As for many cellists, these Suites have been my steady companion throughout my life with the cello, first as a vehicle to learn counterpoint, style, and harmony, then as material with which to explore personal expression and interpretation, and today they are a mirror, reflecting the deeper truth of the human experience, revealing more layers of meaning each time I come back to them.

As far as we know, these Suites were not written for the church, and by 1720, they were not written for people to actually dance to, but rather as forms with familiar rhythms and style. In contrast to the Violin Sonatas and Partitas which were written around the same time, the Cello Suites each have the same movement structure, which includes a Prelude and two pairs of dances (Allemande and Courante, Sarabande and Gigue) with an added “wildcard” of pairs of Menuets, Gavottes, or Bourées. Rather than hindering expression, this structure seems to enable more creativity to flow, as Bach pushes the boundaries of the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument with each succeeding Suite.

During the heart of the pandemic of 2020, I found comfort and refuge in these Suites. As I began to play them not just individually but as a set, an arch started to emerge, a true Hero’s journey: starting with the innocent 1st Suite in G major, the first taste of bitter disappointment in the d minor 2nd Suite, a renewed optimism in the 3rd Suite in C major, the bold and brash 4th Suite in Eb Major, the dark tragedy of the 5th Suite in C minor, and finally the glorious redemption of the 6th Suite in D Major. My hope in presenting these Suites without repeats is to more clearly illuminate this arch of their presented order so that we may more closely follow this universal storyline. - Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir

REVIEW:

Recordings of Bach’s six Cello Suites aren’t in short supply, so what does this latest new one have going for it? Icelandic-American cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir is known as a contemporary music specialist, returning here to what she describes as “mergur málsins” (“the marrow of the matter” in Icelandic), a constant companion throughout her musical life. Thorsteinsdóttir found solace in the suites during the pandemic and celebrated the 2020 summer solstice by playing each suite in a different church in Iceland’s remote Westfjords region. Thorsteinsdóttir views each work as part of a sequence, “a true hero’s journey” which takes the listener from innocence to redemption, tasting disappointment, optimism and tragedy along the way.

Knowing this isn’t a prerequisite for enjoying the performances, and Thorsteinsdóttir’s poised, lyrical playing makes this set a front runner among recent recordings.

-- The Arts Desk

Bulgarian-born pianist Kristina Marinova harnesses the healing powers of emotional melodies on LOVES ME NOT, a curated selection of soulful classical piano pieces spanning three centuries, from Bach to Rachmaninoff. Within the album’s tracklist lies an impressive range of works and composers: Gluck, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin, Tarrega and Satie, to name a few. The compositions are united by their melancholic themes (often sparked by biographical calamity), but like an acorn that falls from the crown of a tree, they bear within themselves a seed of hope, a new beginning.

Highpoints of virtuosity in Bach’s output and the Baroque organ repertoire, in new recordings by an organist with a rich catalogue of success on Brilliant Classics to his credit. As well as a host of obscure composers, Manuel Tomadin has recorded many central figures in the organ repertoire, from Buxtehude to Rheinberger. His Bach discography includes the Leipziger Choräle, BWV 651-667 (94556) and an original ‘Harmonic Seasons’ album (95786) pairing preludes and fugues with chorales that tell a story of rebirth and quiescence through the four seasons. For his latest album, he turns to undisputed highlights of the repertoire: the collection of six sonatas in three parts which Bach compiled in the late 1720s. By then he had settled into his post as Capellmeister in Leipzig, and with this set of works was evidently aiming to leave his contribution to the already rich literature of trio sonatas which had originated some decades earlier in Italy and subsequently spread across Europe, as a means of crossing sacred and secular divides with music conceived for performance by either a single keyboard player or a chamber group of musicians Being Bach, however, he determined to produce not merely another volume in the library. While he drew the material for the trio sonatas from earlier pieces, he refined and adapted them with all the ingenuity and harmonic invention at his disposal, making the finished set among the most demanding pieces ever written for the organ, then or now. The trio sonatas are accordingly often performed by a trio of chamber musicians, but there is a special freshness and virtuosity to be savoured when they are played, as here and as originally intended, by a single organist. As Manuel Tomadin notes in his valuable booklet introduction, the six sonatas run the gamut of expressive feeling, from a gravity of pathos in the central Largo of the C minor Sonata No.2 to the irrepressible joy of the finale to the C major No.5. He has made these new recordings on an instrument with an excellent Bachian pedigree: the Bosch/Schnitger organ (1686/1720) of the Hervormde church in the Dutch town of Vollenhove, and the booklet includes a full specification for the instrument.

J. S. Bach’s Preludes / Toccatas / Fantasias & Fugues for organ are among the peak artistic achievements of the human race. The combination of harmonic and melodic beauty, visceral force, and intellectual ingenuity is unparalleled by any other solo instrument’s repertoire. Organist Eric Plutz realized that a compelling single program of these masterpieces could be formed by performing them in diatonic order – one for each key: A, B, C etc. In Western music that sequence is known as ‘The Gamut,’ a term that came to mean a "complete range.’ This program, therefore, aligns with Bach’s own deep sense for order while traversing the complete range of Bach’s vision, from tenderest melancholy to the depths of despair, from bold challenge to ecstatic victory. These peaks and valleys are nobly served by the dazzling colors of the Princeton University organ as well as the full historic and acoustic resonance of the Princeton University Chapel itself (the third largest college chapel in the world).

The current popularity of Bach's six cello suites can be traced back to the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, who was the first to include these pieces in the concert repertoire. The young violinist Jorge Jimenez, also Catalan, is a great admirer of the great cellist, coming only a few kilometres from Casals' birthplace. But Bach's cello suites already attracted attention in the 19th century, in the course of the Leipzig Bach Renaissance around Felix Mendelssohn. The violin virtuoso and teacher Ferdinand David made an arrangement for the violin. Jorge Jimenez uses this edition from 1866 for his interpretation. It contains unusually varied and for that time very precise indications for the performance of the music. For this version, entirely in the 19th century reading, Jorge Jimenez uses a romantic violin and a bow from the period. His extraordinary interpretation of Bach's cello suites is the second part of his series "Rethinking Bach", which Jimenez began with his own highly acclaimed arrangement of the Goldberg Variation for solo violin (PC 10434).

Although Bach obviously felt at home composing for the recorder and used it in important works such as the Brandenburg Concertos and several cantatas, he never composed a concerto for solo recorder - in fact, he only wrote original solo concertos for harpsichord and violin. The lack of solo concertos for the recorder can be remedied, however: it is precisely his concertos for harpsichord that Bach demonstrably transcribed himself, although it is not always clear for which of the missing originals they were intended. Even f in some cases other instruments are more likely, it is at least not objectionable to play some of these concertos with recorder. The ensemble Cantica Symphonia has chosen Bach's concertos BWV 1053 in D major, BWV 1055 in A major for its recorder player Lorenzo Cavasanti, while violinist Liana Mosca plays the concerto BWV 1056 in G minor. Both together play the Concerto BWV 1060 in C minor, originally for two harpsichords.

The David harp is a type of harp from the German Baroque period. The figure of King David is usually depicted on the head of the harp column. The strings are fitted with brays, which gives this instrument a typical buzzing sound. In addition to the David harp, however, a number of other types of harp were used in baroque Germany, such as the single-row hooked harp, on which the pitch could be altered with hooks on the strings, or double-row chromatic harps. Mara Galassi and her colleague Flora Papadopoulos present a hitherto unknown German repertoire with their harp duets, which they interpret on five different harp types of this period. The works come from various German collections, such as the Dresden "Musikalische Rüstkammer", the collection of the Silesian Dominican monk Father Pius Hancke, but also works by Silvius Leopold Weiss, whose lute duets were transcribed for two harps. The CD ends with a transcription of Bach's famous "Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto", which the two harpists arranged for themselves in the style of the above-mentioned harp manuscripts and lute duets.