★★★★★
Following concert performances last year, the Academy of Ancient Music and a small choral ensemble singing four to a part have recorded the 1724 version of the St John Passion, which Bach would later revise and elaborate. As we now expect of period instrument performances, the tempi are mostly brisk, the instrumental playing clean and energetic but not forced. James Gilchrist as the Evangelist is an incisive and emotional storyteller, capitalising on the drama of the Easter story...
- www.theguardian.com
2014-04-06
★★★★★
There are many fine recordings of Bach's 48 on both piano and harpsichord, but Christophe Rousset has something special to offer here -a gorgeous Ruckers instrument of 1628 which has an ideal resonance and crispness. He understands perfectly how to use overlapping notes and phrases to create an expressiveness you might not suspect possible...
- www.theguardian.com
2014-01-26
★★★★★
René Jacobs: 'the mix of drama and meditation is breathtakingly sustained'. Photograph: Marco Borggreve "For the love of Bach and the glory of God," René Jacobs states in a sleevenote for his recording of the St Matthew Passion. A performance of overwhelming sincerity, it's not without controversy...
- www.theguardian.com
2013-11-22
★★★★★
Bach's solo keyboard transcriptions of concertos by Vivaldi and other Venetian composers probably belong to the later Weimar years, c1714-16. The stimulus seems to have been provided by the young and musical Prince Johann Ernst who had collected manuscripts from his travels in Italy. We can imagine how thrilled Bach must have been to get his hands on such novel music whose form would have been pretty unfamiliar in Saxony and whose idiom was far removed from that nearer home...
- www.classical-music.com
2013-10-30
★★★★★
This first volume (of two) of Bach's Lutheran masses - the G minor BMV 235 and the F major BWV 233, with the Cantata 102, Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben! - was inspired by the Bach Unwrapped series at London's Kings Place. The Sixteen and Harry Christophers performed these works there, with small forces - two voices to a part - and an expert instrumental ensemble who contribute precise, highly energised solo playing and continuo...
- www.theguardian.com
2013-10-06
★★★★★
A feature of Jeremy Denk's work as a pianist - a blisteringly original, thoughtful one at that - is his parallel skill at writing about music. In this unrushed, transparent, unmannered account of the Goldbergs, he provides an invaluable DVD of "video" programme notes, a bonus for anyone still trying to comprehend these variations, which I suspect is all of us...
- www.theguardian.com
2013-09-22
★★★★★
John Butt and the Dunedin Consort have already recorded Bach's Matthew and John Passions, as well as Handel's Messiah, and his oratorio Esther for Linn, but this is their first venture into purely instrumental baroque on disc. As always, the performances are underpinned by a wealth of research, though that learning is always worn very lightly...
- www.theguardian.com
2013-09-12
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