Bach's Bungalow

[prémont]

I'm especially interested in the discs with Klavierinstrumente.
Something to look forward to.

Certainly. Pay special attention to the recordings by Christiane Jaccottet, Miklos Spanyi (Otto Winter you know) and Esther Sialm. Sialm´s Dorian T&F are among my top faves of this piece (next to Walcha, Kooiman and Beekman of course). The box is a steal, even if it also contains less interesting recordings.

[prémont]

I will try, for example, the Orgelbüchlein (BWV 639 or 603, just to say), the Trio Sonatas or The Italian Connection disc (BWV 596).

According to me the Orgelbüchlein and the Trio sonatas are the cream of Herrick´s set.

[Antoine Marchand]

Listened to some samples Antoine and that is EXACTLY what I'm talking about!  Awesome!!  It looks like mdt has the best price, so I've added it to my wishlist there.

Excellent! 

[Antoine Marchand]

Certainly. Pay special attention to the recordings by Christiane Jaccottet, Miklos Spanyi (Otto Winter you know) and Esther Sialm. Sialm´s Dorian T&F are among my top faves of this piece (next to Walcha, Kooiman and Beekman of course). The box is a steal, even if it also contains less interesting recordings.

As far as I recall this box set was firstly pointed out by you (some credit, you know), when we were talking about Jaccottet in the "Bach on the Harpsichord (lute-harpsichord, clavichord, etc.)" thread.  Information about the contents was included there:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,289.msg300309/topicseen.html#msg300309

[Antoine Marchand]

According to me the Orgelbüchlein and the Trio sonatas are the cream of Herrick´s set.

I agree. I like very much his organ concertos too (The Italian Connection); I love his thoughtful, reflective style there.

[DavidW]

Now I know that we can distinguish between the different periods based on pre-Weimar and Weimar as an early period, Cothen period is when he focused on secular music, and the longest time being the Leipzig period where he wrote most of his vocal masterpieces...

but...

Setting that aside, how would you characterize the evolution of Bach's style through the different periods?

[Marc]

[....] how would you characterize the evolution of Bach's style through the different periods?

That's a complicated question. Too much complicated for me to even give the idea of an answer, I admit.
(And certainly at this very moment when my brain is slowed down, due to high summer temperatures.)

So I'll answer with a quick one: although Bach himself of course wasn't aware of it, he characterized his own evolution whilst composing the Chaconne, part 5 of the Partita in D minor for solo violin (BWV 1004).

[jlaurson]

CD Pick of the Week: Bach's Orchestral Suites Reconstructed
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=630


Monica Hugget is one of the baroque music scene's most cherished pioneer-veterans.
Co-founder of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra with Ton Koopman and founding member
of the Academy of Ancient Music, she also worked with Trevor Pinnock and his English
Concert and she has led Toronto-based Tafelmusik. She is currently the head of the
Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Ireland Baroque Orchestra and of course the Ensemble
Sonnerie which she founded, then still a Trio, in 1982.

When someone like Monica Huggett brings out a recording of Bach's Orchestral Suites
it's a notable event, not the least because new and exciting recordings of the Suites
—or Concert-Ouvertures—are rather more scarce than new recordings of the Brandenburg-
or Keyboard Concertos. It's also notable because Mme. Huggett goes her own ways in
reconstructing those three suites that we only have in transcriptions from now-lost-
originals...

[Opus106]

[T]ry as they may, those who venture to make Bach "their own" inevitably find that Bach somehow reaches out from beyond the grave to make them "his own". 

[prémont]

It's also notable because Mme. Huggett goes her own ways in
reconstructing those three suites that we only have in transcriptions from now-lost-
originals...

Transcriptions??? The surviving versions are probably Bach´s own arrangements -or final versions, if you want, so they are more authoricised than the so called reconstructions of presumed lost originals.

[jlaurson]

Transcriptions??? The surviving versions are probably Bach´s own arrangements -or final versions, if you want, so they are more authoricised than the so called reconstructions of presumed lost originals.

Responding to the insinuation that she was making Bach "her own" (not mine) or simply to my use of the (correct) word "Transcriptions"?
It's a technical term, and it applies... no?

[Opus106]

Responding to the insinuation that she was making Bach "her own" (not mine) or simply to my use of the (correct) word "Transcriptions"?
It's a technical term, and it applies... no?

That  quote I posted was not directed at your review, Jens. (I would have quoted you otherwise, considering the gap in time between the two posts.) It was just an interesting comment that I thought I'd share with the rest of the forum. I apologise for any misunderstanding.

[prémont]

Responding to the insinuation that she was making Bach "her own" (not mine) or simply to my use of the (correct) word "Transcriptions"?
It's a technical term, and it applies... no?

I find the word "transcription" inappropiate for an arrangement of a work, which basically remain unchanged, and where the diiference just consists of  the addition of a few instruments f.i. tromba´s. 

[jlaurson]

That  quote I posted was not directed at your review, Jens. (I would have quoted you otherwise, considering the gap in time between the two posts.) It was just an interesting comment that I thought I'd share with the rest of the forum. I apologise for any misunderstanding.

Sorry, then. 

Say, change of topic: Anyone know if there is (there must be) a WTC with Nikolayeva from her Russian days? An old Melodiya set, perhaps? I have her  1984/85 Japanese recording(s) and I was wondering if there was something closer (in time, if nothing else) to the Bach as it must have sounded when DSCH heard it.

[jlaurson]

on-topic bump.



Ionarts-at-Large: Bach's St. John Passion with Ton Koopman

[Marc]

on-topic bump.


Ionarts-at-Large: Bach's St. John Passion with Ton Koopman

Your positive review doesn't come as a surprise to me. Somehow I feel that the Johannes-Passion is closer to Koopman's own personality than the Matthäus. At least I prefer his studio recording of the first by far. The latter sounding too much 'investigated' and studious, IMO.
OTOH: Koopman's live recording of the SMP (both on CD and DVD) is also very good, more involved and naturally balanced than his studio rendering.

[listener]

a tribute from The Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, born 325 years ago in Eisenach, Germany (1685). He came from a musical family, and was talented enough to get a scholarship to study music. And as a teenager, he was an accomplished organist and held a series of posts at various churches. But he wasn't the easiest organ player to have on staff. He criticized the choir, he took prolonged absences from his job, and once he got in a fight with a bassoonist, in which Bach called the bassoonist something that has been translated as "nanny-goat bassoonist" or "bassoonist breaking wind after eating a green onion." He took a leave of absence from a job in the town of Arnstadt — he asked for a month and stayed for three more — to visit another part of Germany and see the composer and organist Dietrich Buxtehude. Buxtehude was old by the time Bach visited him, and they hit it off, and Bach could have taken over his position. But by practice, he would have had to marry Buxtehude's daughter, and apparently this idea was not appealing because he went back to Arnstadt. His employers were relieved to have him back because he was so talented, but they weren't too happy that he was three months late, nor with the musical innovations he had picked up, inspired by Buxtehude. The Church Council held a meeting and informed him: "Complaints have been made to the Consistorium that you now accompany the hymns with surprising variations and irrelevant ornaments which obliterate the melody and confuse the congregation. If you desire to introduce a theme against the melody, you must go on with it and not immediately fly off to another." Then he was reprimanded for playing the organ for "a strange damsel." Not much later, he left Arnstadt, married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach, and went on to a distinguished career as a composer, organist, and champion of German music.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The Church Council held a meeting and informed him: "Complaints have been made to the Consistorium that you now accompany the hymns with surprising variations and irrelevant ornaments which obliterate the melody and confuse the congregation. If you desire to introduce a theme against the melody, you must go on with it and not immediately fly off to another."

It's funny how much the Church Council sounds like the modern-music haters that populate boards like this one 

[knight66]

A nice window into the life of the young Bach. I think we get a picture of a very respectible man and this insight makes him rather more human.

Mike

[Marc]

A nice window into the life of the young Bach. I think we get a picture of a very respectible man and this insight makes him rather more human.

Sure. Some people consider him a God though .... but, by God, was Bach human!

But who knows .... maybe the one & only God would have smiled, listening upstairs in Heaven to Bach's choral accompaniments.

And what about that exquisit Christian drink called wine?
In Arnstadt, young Bach was also rebuked by the Church Council for sneaking away during sermons and diving into the goodies of the wine cellar!