Reviews updated on 24 August, 2000
Along with
Erato, Teldec, Archiv Produktion, BIS and others, Hänssler Classic is one
of the many record labels commemorating the 250th death anniversary of the
composer. No company, however, comes close to the extent which the Hänssler
Bach Edition aims to cover. To be fully issued by June 2000, the EDITION
BACHAKADEMIE comprises 172 CDs covering the complete known, surviving
and playable music by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The recordings span the last three decades of the 20th
century. Many are thus of considerable age, some dating as far back as
the 1970s. The cantata cycle recorded by eminent Bach scholar Helmuth
Rilling features such "older generation" names as the singers Arleen Augér,
Helen Watts, Ann Murray, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, among
others. Newer recordings, however, have also been added to the Edition,
including fresh takes on the Mass in B minor (reviewed
here, the Christmas Oratorio and the secular cantatas.
All the CDs are being re-issued at mid-price, and are
available separately or as part of a subscription. From July 2000, it
will also be made available as a complete set. More details can be found
at the Hänssler Classic website.
The Choral Music, including the Complete Cantatas With the Gächinger Kantorei (choir) and the Bach-Collegium
Stuttgart, leading singers of today have joined in the celebration. Among
them are: Christine Schäfer, Sibylla Rubens, Ingeborg Danz, Michael Schade,
James Taylor, Matthias Goerne, Andreas Schmidt, Thomas Quasthoff and others.
Volumes reviewed at The Flying Inkpot:
Keyboard Music Volumes reviewed at The Flying Inkpot: Organ Works
Chamber Music
Orchestral Music Volumes reviewed at The Flying Inkpot:
Sporting new notes (and well-written they are by Andreas Bomba), Helmuth
Rilling’s 1970s-80s cycle of "complete" church cantatas has been recompiled
in chronological order, available in a series of single CDs. To this has
been added the secular cantatas, the large-scale sacred works and a miscellany
that includes the short masses and more. In the elderly recordings, the
style and quality are presented a whole new world of challenge in the
face of newer cycles by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque (Erato),
the Bach Collegium Japan (BIS), and others. Rilling's avoidance of period
style and instruments in his cycle, but coupled with the spiritual mission
to capture the essence of Bach, produces mixed but often enlightening
results, and is worth exploring, especially when here we are given the
opportunity to see how Bach performance has evolved from the 1970s through
the 1990s under one single group of performers.
Wedding and Coffee Cantatas
For Bach’s music for keyboard, the Edition is coordinated by American
(forte)pianist and musicologist Robert Levin, who also recorded The
Well-Tempered Clavier and the English Suites. Robert Hill recorded
the early works. Both use a range of instruments, which include among
them a rare lute-piano, for which Bach wrote several compositions. The
award-winning recording of the Goldberg
Variations played by Evgeni Koroliov also graces the Edition:
The Complete Music for Organ were recorded under the direction
of Kay Johannsen, a leading organ authority, on a number of different
organs, both historic and contemporary, including various artists such
as Wolfgang Zerer, Bine-Katrine Bryndorf, Andrea Marcon and Martin Lücker.
Soloists from the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart will be performing
Bach’s chamber music, including flutist Jean-Claude Gèrard and the oboist
Ingo Goritzki, who recorded the reconstructed oboe concertos. The Complete
Solo Partitas and Suites for Violin were recorded by violinist Dmitri
Sitkovetsky. The Edition also features the Gamba Sonatas with Hille Perl,
Violin Sonatas with Sitkovetsky, Cello Suites with Boris Pergamenschikow
and more.
New recordings of the harpsichord concertos with Robert
Levin and Robert Hill are being prepared. Rilling's enjoyable accounts
of the Orchestral Suites with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra is already
available.
|
Click to Return
to the Classical Index!... or Visit the Inkvault archives! |
661: 27.2.2000 ©Flying Inkpot
 |
Explore the Flying Inkpot
| Concert Reviews |
Bit deadish:
| BACH |
A SELECTION OF REVIEWS:
For even more Bach reviews, check out the Inkvault!
To
Bach Is To Be Human
A Tribute to the Master
(Klemperer/Veldhoven)