Bach's Bungalow

Started by aquablob, April 06, 2007, 02:42:33 PM

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Sammy

Quote from: jlaurson on July 27, 2013, 09:14:09 AM

Dip Your Ears, No. 148 (Double the Chorales, Double the Joy)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-148-double-chorales.html



I'll definitely be getting this set.  I haven't purchased a recording of the Orgelbuchlein for a few years, and I loved Cera's set of the French Suites.

premont

Quote from: Sammy on July 27, 2013, 02:34:41 PM
I'll definitely be getting this set.  I haven't purchased a recording of the Orgelbuchlein for a few years, and I loved Cera's set of the French Suites.

Knowing these chorales almost too well, I do not feel any need to hear them sung in this context, regardless of how beautifully they are sung. IMO it is nice just to listen to the chorale preludes in sequence.
But this recording is a must because of Cera´s informed and beautifully expressive interpretations. So I think I shall get his French suites after all, even if I surely own too many French suites (Sigh  - I am desperately trying to fight against my ingrained completism).
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

milk

I noticed there is a new recording by Susanne Heinrich of some of Bach's solo violin music transcribed for Viola Da Gamba. I couldn't find a good image to link to. I haven't seen any reviews or mentioned of this recording save one on the Guardian. I'm intrigued.

Mandryka

#404
Quote from: milk on August 04, 2013, 06:22:53 AM
I noticed there is a new recording by Susanne Heinrich of some of Bach's solo violin music transcribed for Viola Da Gamba. I couldn't find a good image to link to. I haven't seen any reviews or mentioned of this recording save one on the Guardian. I'm intrigued.

It's on spotify.

I must say I'm so impressed by the sound Les Voix Humaines make when they play Art of Fugue that anything else gamba wise is a bit of a disappointment. I once read a 17th century review which said that the viola de gamba sounds like a refined diplomat speaking gently. That's exactly what Les Voix Humaines sound like to me - a bunch of refined diplomats all speaking at the same time. Not for nothing are they called what they're called.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Marc

Quote from: jlaurson on July 27, 2013, 09:14:09 AM
[....]
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-148-double-chorales.html

[/url]

Jens, about the consecution organ-choir vs choir-organ, mentioned in your review.
The organ pieces are preludes, so I think they are meant to precede the sung chorals. I've attended some protestant services, and in those the organist begins with a prelude (if one's lucky, it's a nice Bach one ;)) and then the congregation begins to sing, accompanied by the organ. But they are not singing just one stanza, in most cases they are singing 3 or more stanzas. Therefore the duration of both prelude and choral execution is more in balance, compared to most cd recordings where just one stanza is sung. All stanzas are accompanied by the organ, and the final stanza is often accompanied in organo pleno. In some cases the final stanza is followed by an organ postlude.

jlaurson

Quote from: Marc on August 04, 2013, 09:57:43 PM
Jens, about the consecution organ-choir vs choir-organ, mentioned in your review.
The organ pieces are preludes, so I think they are meant to precede the sung chorals.

Well, I've sung in churches plenty, too, catholic and protestant... so I know that. But surely the point of a CD is not to replicate the service (i.e. familiarize the crowd with the melody and attune them to pitch so that they can then carol along), but to familiarize with Bach. Especially, as you point out, that the balance of the service is not retained by making it only one stanza, when even today there are still three or so (usually stanzas 1, 2, and 5, for some reason -- no? :-))  used, and back then perhaps the whole lot.

Karl Henning

Must admit, the Cantatas are an eye-opener. Not that there was ever the least doubt what a cracking good composer Bach was, of course.  But I increasingly feel, when listening to a Cantata, that I could listen to nothing but Bach all day . . . .
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

DavidW

Quote from: karlhenning on August 14, 2013, 05:24:36 AM
Must admit, the Cantatas are an eye-opener. Not that there was ever the least doubt what a cracking good composer Bach was, of course.  But I increasingly feel, when listening to a Cantata, that I could listen to nothing but Bach all day . . . .

I'm glad to see you come around. 8)

Johnll

Quote from: karlhenning on August 14, 2013, 05:24:36 AM
Must admit, the Cantatas are an eye-opener. Not that there was ever the least doubt what a cracking good composer Bach was, of course.  But I increasingly feel, when listening to a Cantata, that I could listen to nothing but Bach all day . . . .
\

Listening to Bach all day for years is not recommended. I wore some of his finest works out to my ears or I might say I ration them now. Actually it is pretty hard to do with all those cantatas and I have not achieved it yet. Mozart may be a equal musical genius but no one, in all of music to my knowledge, has Bach's personal integrity. At least I find no clever insincerity about him. 


Karl Henning

Quote from: Johnll on August 14, 2013, 07:51:17 PM
Listening to Bach all day for years is not recommended.

Well, there is no danger, I couldn't possibly do that . . . I'd reach for too much Haydn, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Mozart, Sibelius, Nielsen [...] in the year's course . . . .
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Marc

I'm quite convinced I could survive on a desert island with only Bach's complete works. ;)
(Although I would ask permission to take Mozart's Da Ponte opera's with me, too.)

Brahmsian

Just finished listening to:

Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903

The fugue is OMFG so damn good!! Why should I be surprised?  It's Bach!  :D

From the Hewitt set.

milk

I notice a positive review on Music-web of Susanne Heinrich's recording of some the violin sonatas and partitas transcribed for viol da gamba:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Dec13/Bach_transcriptions_DAGAMBA100.htm

Is Johan van Veen someone who posts on here? I forget who is who.

kishnevi

Quote from: milk on December 01, 2013, 05:54:04 AM
I notice a positive review on Music-web of Susanne Heinrich's recording of some the violin sonatas and partitas transcribed for viol da gamba:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Dec13/Bach_transcriptions_DAGAMBA100.htm

Is Johan van Veen someone who posts on here? I forget who is who.

AFAIK, he's not a member here.  But he does have his own website
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/
And posts a weekly listing of new reviews and articles to the otherwise completely moribund Orfeo yahoo mailing list.

Wakefield

#415
A detailed review on Gardiner's Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by George B. Stauffer (NY Review of Books), under the title "Why Bach Moves Us":

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/feb/20/why-bach-moves-us/?insrc=hpss

:)

"One of the greatest misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowards. They complain, keep quiet, dine and forget."
-- Voltaire

Octave

#416
As usual, I have done some searching and very probably missed some discussion.

I just listened to the EASTER ORATORIO [OSTER-ORATORIUM] BWV249 and it was more powerful than ever.  This time I followed a text and listened more attentively and the effect was quite a bit more than 'edifying'.   It really sent me.

The recording I listened to was the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim dir. "Prof." Rolf Schweizer, with voices of Christine Brenk, Anne Greiling, Frank Bossert, and Thomas Pfeiffer as the personae (?), recorded 1999 in the Stadtkirche Pforzheim.  This was the recording included in Brilliant's "complete" megabox.  It's been so long since I've listened to the piece, I don't know how much this performance had to do with my thrall.

I am itching to head back to the ones I have: Suzuki, Parrott, Herreweghe.   Are there any other recordings of the piece that I absolutely should not miss?

If there are texts on/about the piece (in English) that are well worth reading, I'm interested.
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Dancing Divertimentian

Quote from: Octave on March 21, 2014, 01:28:03 AM.I am itching to head back to the ones I have: Suzuki, Parrott, Herreweghe.   Are there any other recordings of the piece that I absolutely should not miss?

Herreweghe's version has always done it for me but an interesting one on the horizon is Gardiner's:



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Gardiner's cantatas from the pilgrimage have always been blessed with wonderfully informative and lengthy annotations so I'd assume the same would apply to the Easter Oratorio. An added plus.


Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

kishnevi

Almost exactly a month since someone lasted posted here!

Well,  I'm almost at the end of a complete first run through of the Hanssler Bachakademie Complete Bach box*, and I've already gotten the equivalent box from Teldec, so I'd thought I'd make a brief general comparison of the two for anyone interested in them.

I'm pretty much pleased with both of them,  and both of them have different strengths and weaknesses.  Overall,  I though Hanssler did a better job with the vocal works, and Teldec with the instrumental works,  but with shadings.  I preferred the Hanssler recordings of the organ works (by a variety of organists) to that of Teldec (Koopman).  One real musical treasure that is well done in both boxes was the collection of four part chorale settings (ie, the chorales for chorus, as opposed to the chorales for organ).

Hanssler is mostly MI, and Teldec is of course thoroughly HIP/PI.

I found myself preferring the vocal works in the Hanssler box for two reasons:  first, I'm not a fan of boy sopranos, who of course are a staple of the Leonhardt/Harnoncourt cycle found in the Teldec box; second, Rilling's presentation of the vocal works came across better to me, especially in the Passions and other "major" choral works.  But I prefer my other complete cycle of cantatas--Gardiner--to either  of the ones in the boxes.

On the other hand, the presentation of the keyboard and orchestral works was a sort of hodgepodge in the Hanssler box, but more consistent (in part because of the only PI approach) in the Teldec box, and in general I prefer a PI approach (boy sopranos excepted).

Hanssler has issued several segments of its box as smaller sets,  including both the sacred cantatas and the organ works, so a nice compromise might be to get those two smaller sets, and the complete Teldec box.

*listening to the flute sonatas now, which will leave only the suites for solo cello to be heard, and I hope to get that in the CD player sometime tomorrow.

Wakefield

Interesting opinions, Jeffrey.

I generally prefer the Teldec Edition as a whole. The only exceptions are the keyboard works (when played on period instruments) and the organ works which are, IMO, fully competitive (keyboard works) or on a par (organ works) with the Teldec Edition.

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 20, 2014, 06:41:29 PM
*listening to the flute sonatas now, which will leave only the suites for solo cello to be heard, and I hope to get that in the CD player sometime tomorrow.

IMO, those flute sonatas are some of the worst disks of the Hänssler Edition.
"One of the greatest misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowards. They complain, keep quiet, dine and forget."
-- Voltaire