![]() ![]() Only the most gifted interpreters manage both. Where other practitioners offer regular accents and a perhaps over-cautious traversal, tethered to the notes, Levit never fails to project a commanding overview – an aerial perspective, almost – in addition to the detail of phrasing and articulations and the nooks and crannies of melodic lines. Levit’s achievement is to miss nothing of their scope and variety as compositions while conveying what it is that makes each one a unity, not an anthology, demanding to be performed complete. The Aria's return, too, is overwhelming in its profound sense of solace and resolution.Ĭomplex music – but not complicated. 25) is far less romantically susceptible than before, has an almost confrontational assurance. Variation 21 is painted in the boldest of oils, so to speak, and most importantly of all, Landowska's 'black pearl' (Var. 19's previously light and dancing measures are humorously slow and precise. The tremulous confidences of Variation 13 in the 1955 performance give way to something more forthright, more trenchantly and determinedly voiced, while Var. And it is this 'autumnal repose' that adds such a deeply imaginative dimension to Gould's unimpeded clarity and pin-point definition. By his own admission he had, during those intervening years, discovered 'slowness' or a meditative quality far removed from flashing fingers and pianistic glory. Gould was not in the habit of re-recording but a growing unease with that earlier performance made him turn once again to a timeless masterpiece and try, via a radically altered outlook, for a more definitive account. This truly astonishing performance was recorded in 1981, 26 years after Gould's legendary 1955 disc. If they had wanted to be pedantically completist about it, we would have the Fifth Brandenburg and the Triple Concerto instead we get the three known violin concertos plus the three most convincing reconstructions from harpsichord concertos, supplemented by a reconstruction of the putative early violin version of the B minor Flute Suite, and all neatly interspersed with arrangements of two of the organ sonatas and a clutch of cantata sinfonias (including the rarely heard, trumpet-and-drum-laden BWV1045, a violin concerto movement of some flashiness). ![]() Their choice of repertoire, too, feels driven by a desire to celebrate Bach’s life with the violin rather than document it. That Isabelle Faust and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin have let this Bach violin concertos album run to nearly 2 hours of music suggests a relish of their task that is mirrored triumphantly in the resultant music-making. Isabelle Faust, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin This recording, made with an ensemble hand-picked for the job, is a 60th-birthday present to himself, and is just what such a project should be: talented musicians relishing each other’s company in music of truly inspiring greatness. Not that Pinnock need worry about that at this point in his career. When Trevor Pinnock first recorded the Brandenburgs with the English Concert for DG Archiv in 1982, period performances of these works were relatively rare today they abound, and it has become harder to make a mark in music that does not readily admit a wide range of interpretations. There are some exceptional individual contributions: brilliant violin-playing in the Overture of the Third Suite, a beautifully matched trio of oboes and bassoon enlivening many moments in the First Suite and, in the Second Suite, Karl Kaiser’s immaculate flute-playing, with spectacular, stylish embellishments to the repeated sections.Įuropean Brandenburg Ensemble / Trevor Pinnock The four Orchestral Suites are supremely life-affirming music, fully realised here with playing that emphasises rhythmic vitality and poise, as well as giving inspiring expression to Bach’s wonderful melodic lines. Over the years, we’ve come to expect outstanding performances from the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and this issue certainly does not disappoint. Orchestral Suitesįreiburg Baroque Orchestra / Petra Mullejans, Gottfried von der Goltz The 50 best Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart recordings.The 50 best Ludwig van Beethoven recordings.Here are a selection of works by Bach that are essential listening and once bitten the Bach Bug will take you on a journey of almost limitless reward. ![]() Throughout Bach’s long life, his achievement was staggering and is astounding in its size and ambition, and it is replete with masterpieces – works that stand like the peaks of a huge mountain range. ![]() If music has a holy trinity the three names would probably be Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, but if that already shortest of shortlists is reduced to just one, the answer, in the words of Dylan Thomas’s Organ Morgan, is ‘Bach is best’. ![]()
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