Bach's Bungalow

[Karl Henning]

Aye, I reckoned that even just figuring on fetching in all the Kantaten, it's a bargain.

[Wakefield]

It would be interesting to know if it includes a scanned copy of the original liner notes. Incredibly the big box doesn't include them.

[Karl Henning]

• Articles: Original articles taken from the historic 'Das Alte Werk' series about Bach's major works, available as PDF files to download

[Wakefield]

These words suggest a "selection" from the original notes, isn't it? Anyway, this can't be worst than the online "booklet" provided for the last incarnation of The Complete Bach Edition:

http://www.warnerclassics.com/sungtexts/0825646642021.pdf

[kishnevi]

Hm, I don't think I've noticed this spelling before, or have thought that it's just a typo.

This set does look excellent, though - although the massiveness might be a bit too much.

I found it best to treat it as a group of boxsets, and listen a segment at a time--organ works, cantatas, keyboard works, etc.   Like all big meals, it's easier to digest if you take your time in eating it.  Doing it that way took me about a year and a half, with plenty of breaks for other stuff.

The lack of liner notes was an annoyance  ("For sung texts visit the Bach Cantatas website"). The only segment I was not very satisfied with were the Cantatas, and that mostly because of the use of boy sopranos, which my ears generally don't like anyway.

[jlaurson]

The lack of liner notes was an annoyance  ("For sung texts visit the Bach Cantatas website"). The only segment I was not very satisfied with were the Cantatas, and that mostly because of the use of boy sopranos, which my ears generally don't like anyway.

Don't blame it on choristers per se. It's just that they weren't all that good. None were, back in those days... the improvements that have been made are really incredible. (Not just with boys choirs, either, but all choirs.) Was just talking about that a few days ago with the admin of the BR Chorus, who has to delve into the archives a lot, to check what can be OK'ed for release and what not... and a lot of the old stuff, even when the BR Chorus was already top of the line in Germany, usually hasn't got a chance to stand next to modern recordings. Not because of interpretative questions, but simply judged along qualitative lines.

If you hear some of the modern recordings of Bach Cantatas with Thomaner Choristers (under Biller), you'll find that it's a whole different kettle of fish now, and the boys sound good even where they take on solo duties. Amazingly.

[kishnevi]

Don't blame it on choristers per se. It's just that they weren't all that good. None were, back in those days... the improvements that have been made are really incredible. (Not just with boys choirs, either, but all choirs.) Was just talking about that a few days ago with the admin of the BR Chorus, who has to delve into the archives a lot, to check what can be OK'ed for release and what not... and a lot of the old stuff, even when the BR Chorus was already top of the line in Germany, usually hasn't got a chance to stand next to modern recordings. Not because of interpretative questions, but simply judged along qualitative lines.

If you hear some of the modern recordings of Bach Cantatas with Thomaner Choristers (under Biller), you'll find that it's a whole different kettle of fish now, and the boys sound good even where they take on solo duties. Amazingly.

I suppose I need to check those recordings out, but my problem with trebles/boy sopranos/whatever you wish to call them is more general and basic--it's the quality or tone of the juvenile voice that generally puts me off.  Of course, there are individual releases where that's not true--I just listened to a recording of Faure's Requiem with a treble that came off very well (Guest/Choir of St. John's College), and I seem to be the only person in the world who thinks that Bernstein recording of the Mahler Fourth with a boy soprano actually worked out well.

It's also true that the further along in listening to the cantatas I got, the less I was bothered by this issue--perhaps my ears were simply adjusting themselves over repeated listening sessions.

ETA: and add to the listen of boy soloists that I liked the performance of the Pergolesi parody which Bach used for the text of Psalm 150 which is included in the Teldec box--Ars Antiqua Austria directed by Gunnar Letzbor

[jlaurson]

I suppose I need to check those recordings out, but my problem with trebles/boy sopranos/whatever you wish to call them is more general and basic--it's the quality or tone of the juvenile voice that generally puts me off...

Some of it is adjusting... much of it is confidence. I know exactly which quality you are talking about, but it's amazing to hear how that quality vanishes with a supremely confident chorister.

I can't go as far as you, re: Bernstein M4, though. No sireee. I have my limits. :-)

Somewhat related: An essay on the Thomaners (which is why I happen to know their recent recordings so well) upcoming in the next issue of LISTEN Magazine. (Also: I'm not a shill for the Leipzig boys... I was a member of their only serious German rival, when I grew up, and those young biases sit deeply!  )

[TheGSMoeller]

Here's my recently large Bach purchase, spent a few weeks gathering info and samples from several dozen different recordings that interested me. I would be interested to get some feedback, not that I'll be returning the ones that are not approved. 

I'm now Bached up with music! 
I chose Belder and Gulda for my new full WTC performances. Haven't heard much from the Belder, but I have some of his other Bach on Brilliant Classics and they are superb. The Gulda might be the best I've heard of the WTC, I'm finding I prefer less pedal used in these pieces. Although the same cannot be said for Art of Fugue. My obsession for this piece(s) continues to increase. I now have string versions along with keyboard, and perhaps it's because I love how the strings sustain the notes that I'm attracted to MacGregor's performance. She offers contemplative readings that are quite lovely. Plus you get the French Suites all at a nice price. These are Bylsma's first recordings of the Cello Suites, a few days ago I purchased his 1992 recording. They are both highly individual and unique. Sample the opening Prelude and you can instantly hear the difference.


                


From a few days ago...

   

[aukhawk]

MacGregor's recording of the French Suites is my favourite.  So smooth and creamy.
I remember being bowled over by Bylsma's 1st recording of the Cello Suites when I heard it on the radio in the mid-'90s** - so light and lively compared with the Tortelier set I was familiar with.  Probably my first exposure to the HIP style of performance, a real wake-up.  Some time later I bought the CD set assuming I was getting the same thing - but it was Bylsma's later Sony recording which I find stodgy by comparison. 
(My current favourites for the Cello Suites are East, Wispelwey (latest recording) and - for a contrast - Lipkind.)

** [edit] - I think it must have been earlier, late '80s.  That earlier recording appears to date from 1985, my dim recollection is it was on the RCA label originally.

[milk]

MacGregor's recording of the French Suites is my favourite.  So smooth and creamy.
I remember being bowled over by Bylsma's 1st recording of the Cello Suites when I heard it on the radio in the mid-'90s - so light and lively compared with the Tortelier set I was familiar with.  Probably my first exposure to the HIP style of performance, a real wake-up.  Some time later I bought the CD set assuming I was getting the same thing - but it was Bylsma's later Sony recording which I find stodgy by comparison. 
(My current favourites for the Cello Suites are East, Wispelwey (latest recording) and - for a contrast - Lipkind.)

I'm not sorry I took the suggestion made here (or in the cello suites forum) on East.

[Cato]

For those who know German:



Einen "Meisterkurs zur Kunst der Fuge" hatte sie sich anders vorgestellt.....

The bricklayer says: "Then after that you spread out the remaining mortar smoothly with the edge of the...Are you paying any attention at all?"

Caption: "She had imagined a 'Master Class on the Art of the Fugue somewhat differently."

In German, "Fuge" can mean "fugue" or the area where the mortar joins the bricks!  0:)

[Karl Henning]

Flee the fugue!

[Karl Henning]

Argh! He stopped just before we might learn the German for trowel! 

[Cato]

Argh! He stopped just before we might learn the German for trowel! 

My Duden dictionary, aka The Big Dude tells us that the bricklayer is about to say Kelle for "trowel."

[Mandryka]

There are a couple of quotes from academic writing that have been playing on my mind a lot recently. I think they support each other. Where I'm coming from is trying to understand what it is to play Bach authentically now. I post them here on the offchance that someone else is thinking about the same questions in a similar way

One is from John Butt's book on the Bach Passions:

We cannot conceive of a passion setting of this kind existing without the figure of the single minded authorising composer. Most of the gestures, turns of phrase, contrapuntal and formalising techniques are part of a shared vocabulary, but they are pulled together as if from a specific viewpoint . . . The music thereby gains . . . the sense of an implied listening point -- but any such focal point is defined through the organisation of the composition rather than existing prior to it.  . . . Perhaps Bach as the composer becomes such a part of ourr own creative imagination because we too can shape our own creative selves through listening to his music; perhaps his music is a mechanism or the trace of a process that is somehow common to both his world and ours.

The second is from Susan McClary's paper "Talking Politics during the Bach Year"

Bach's collected works could only have been produced by someone occupying a de-centred position with respect to acknowledged mainstream [French, German and Italian] musical cultures. . . A German composer had the option of pursuing these various styles side by side or meshing them in relatively unproblematic ways. Bach often calls attention to the separate implications of the various components of which he makes use and then seems to overcome the dichotomies in order to fashion a world (always centrally German) in which aspects of each style can coexist.

[jlaurson]

The Cello Suites, Bach III (Gastinel, Queyras, Lipkind)




ttp://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cello-suites-bach-iii-gastinel.html

[North Star]

The Cello Suites, Bach III (Gastinel, Queyras, Lipkind)




ttp://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cello-suites-bach-iii-gastinel.html

Interesting. I only own Queyras (which is brilliant), but have heard some from others (including Gastinel, Beschi, Pandolfo & Wispelwey I & II), and some videos of Ophelie Gaillard playing sitting on a tree branch.

Have you heard Gaillard I or II ? (both are OOP now  )

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[jlaurson]

Have you heard Gaillard I or II ? (both are OOP now  )

No, I have not. I think the Aparte Gaillard isn't out of print... it's just that there has been a major upheaval in Europe and the US at the same time, with two distributors going under. It might be related to that.

[North Star]

No, I have not. I think the Aparte Gaillard isn't out of print... it's just that there has been a major upheaval in Europe and the US at the same time, with two distributors going under. It might be related to that.

Ah yes, it seems to be available on other Amazons.