JS Bach: C/D, S/D, RFD

I listen to JSB a lot less these days than in the past, but I still love this music. A huge topic, as t\'\'t says, but I'll still list some personal favorites:

Solo cello suites
These have been nicely transcribed for guitar, too, which you might enjoy playing or listening to...

Sonatas for cello and piano
(Well, gamba and fortepiano, I suppose, but I tend to like performances on modern instruments.) There are three of these; they're not so well known but are among Bach's most beautiful, intimate works. The first, in G Major, is my favorite.

Well-Tempered Clavier
I prefer these on modern piano rather than instruments of JSB's own time. And I prefer this set of pieces, plus the dance suites and the Goldberg Variations, over keyboard performances of the more "abstract" stuff like A Musical Offering and The Art of the Fugue. Bach may have been regarded as old fashioned by the younger generation of his time, but he was a master at assimilating the sounds and styles around him, and this quality shines through less in the abstract work, with no loss of the "peace and clarity" you love.

St Matthew Passion
Huge forces in this one: three choirs, multiple vocal soloists, orchestra with numerous instruments in solo roles. The long stretches of recitative (speech-like song, often with very spare accompaniment) may be an obstacle to liking this; but I don't mind it even though I don't understand the German. Also, it's quite long (spanning 3 CDs). I'd especially recommend the recording directed by Philippe Herreweghe; it features the honey-voiced baritone soloist Peter Kooy singing my favorite aria ("Mache dich, mein Herze...")

I'm told he plays too fast, and some find his humming a drag, but I love Glenn Gould's recordings of these. A regular favourite on a Sunday morning.

Destroy: a lot of the vocal music--he kept forgetting that humans need to breathe.

some of the more common stuff--brandenburgs, well tempered klavier...it just seems like cliched baroque to me. but that's probably from way too much playing/listening to them.

which recording of the Brandenburgs were you listening too, Sundar? More (I think) than any other composer, wildly differing interpretations are the norm for JSB on record.

Wonderful bossa-nova flavoured vocal arrangements of the classics.

someone should start a bach two-part inventions: s/d thread

Any suggestions?

(Radio 3 is playing the complete works of Bach until xmas day, btw - shd tune in sometime.)

Non-stop Bach til 2AM New Years, y'all. They're doing a bunch of Glen Gould right now.

http://www.wkcr.org

Not like it's historically correct or anything, but this is a marvellous album anyway:
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005ORCV.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

ike turner invented classical music when his harpsichord fell off the back of the car they were driving to a show in st. louis.

You don't say?

The random notes played when it occured were probably a big influence on Schönberg and Stravinsky.

seeing st. matthew passion tonight...

Obsessed with this choral prelude after watching Solaris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fhqqxEQRRY&feature=related

It's that time of year

http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/2012-bach-festival-december-22-31

I've been digging into Bach lately, and while I have a pretty good idea where to go with his vocal and solo instrument work, I'd love to hear recommendations on his chamber and orchestral music. I'm only familiar with the Brandenburg Concertos (and "Air on the G String", of course), and I'd want to hear more stuff like that. Preferably on period instruments, as I love them recorders and harpsichords! Which recordings would you folks recommend?

for historically informed/period instrument performances search: gustav leonhardt, konrad junghänel, rene jacobs, reinhard goebel

rachel podger's recordings of the sonatas and partitas for violin (on an original instrument iirc) are incredible.

six sonatas for violin and harpsichord :)

welt gute nacht baroque German doo wop

Which recording flops?

which recording slaps?

Slap That Bassch

This slaps:

https://youtu.be/LoHh_r8gSi4?t=649

lol violinists really love playing that peace in palatial, echoey rooms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEBX_ouEw1I

*piece

Slaps less (flops more) than the Kremer performance imho.

Slaps less but still v nice imo

Which recording flops?

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Monday, May 27, 2019 10:44 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Conductor: John Elliot Gardiner
Ensemble: English Baroque Soloists

Enjoying the Six Partitas, with Lucy Carolan on harpsichord.

Apparently JSB considered this stuff his commercial crowd-pleasing material and didn't rate it, but I like it... particularly Partitas #1 and #3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jq8yWDHA7g

Mutet.