Author Topic: All of Bach (Read 7155 times)

Wowbagger · « **on:** 25 August, 2020, 03:43:19 pm »

The Netherlands Bach Society has a project to record every work composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and post them to Youtube.

The performances are invariably of the highest standard. Here's the latest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRtOLw8rERo&pp=wgIECgIIAQ%3D%3D&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=--_pxYiXWOJz86m6%3A6

pcolbeck · « **Reply #1 on:** 25 August, 2020, 07:21:02 pm »

Nice! That's a big project.

On a related note Lang Lang has a double recording of the Goldberg Variations coming out in September. One disc is a studio version and the other was recorded in the Thomaskirche in one take. I'm looking forward to this a lot.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 August, 2020, 09:35:17 pm »

My biggest problem with Lang Lang is the gurning. It would be good to see inside the Thomaskirche though.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 August, 2020, 09:50:20 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 25 August, 2020, 09:35:17 pm

My biggest problem with Lang Lang is the gurning. It would be good to see inside the Thomaskirche though.

It's on my bucket list. More of a possabilty since I finally persuaded Mrs Pcolbeck to visit Germany last year and she liked it

Wowbagger · « **Reply #4 on:** 01 September, 2020, 04:29:14 pm »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzBXZ__LN_M&pp=wgIECgIIAQ%3D%3D&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=cDHXEXqCQTPEOsgb%3A6

Passacaglia in C minor.

Peter · « **Reply #5 on:** 01 September, 2020, 06:45:58 pm »

I thought you already had a caglia ?

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #6 on:** 01 September, 2020, 08:00:36 pm »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 25 August, 2020, 09:50:20 pm

Quote from: Wowbagger on 25 August, 2020, 09:35:17 pm
My biggest problem with Lang Lang is the gurning. It would be good to see inside the Thomaskirche though.

It's on my bucket list. More of a possabilty since I finally persuaded Mrs Pcolbeck to visit Germany last year and she liked it

We visited a few years back and went to their equivalent of Evening Prayer. Heard some wonderful Bach!

Wowbagger · « **Reply #7 on:** 03 September, 2020, 02:52:28 pm »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC8UErdK_XE&pp=wgIECgIIAQ%3D%3D&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=gg1_KKCKE-eLHQk9%3A6

Cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich

I sang in this at last year's Bach Choral Course at St. Andrew's Uni.

Peter · « **Reply #8 on:** 03 September, 2020, 08:35:19 pm »

Terrific, P, thank you! This is early in Bach's career; do you detect a trace of Schutz's Christmas History here and there? I love the discords in the strings in the Prelude and there is a refreshing lack of vibrato in the singing. Nice to see Mark Cavendish singing bass - I've missed him in this year's Tour!

Wowbagger · « **Reply #9 on:** 28 September, 2020, 10:37:30 am »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5INRyT3XYg&pp=wgIECgIIAQ%3D%3D&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=pUoohOqkiWyBBCkk%3A6&ab_channel=NetherlandsBachSociety

I really like the way that the Netherlands Bach Society put out a short explanatory video before the work they are about to play. Shunske Sato seems to be their top man when it comes to violin playing.

Peter · « **Reply #10 on:** 28 September, 2020, 10:47:05 am »

Excellent, thank you.

hellymedic · « **Reply #11 on:** 28 September, 2020, 05:34:54 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 25 August, 2020, 09:35:17 pm

My biggest problem with Lang Lang is the gurning. It would be good to see inside the Thomaskirche though.

D visited it when he went to Leipzig a few years ago.

CommuteTooFar · « **Reply #12 on:** 28 September, 2020, 08:05:12 pm »

I have never enjoyed Bach as much as I should so I will not comment on it.

I am more a Lisztomaniac. Ten years ago or so the Pianist/Scholar Leslie Howard gave himself the task to record the complete piano works of liszt. And I have bought it twice once on CD and once on FLAC. I can not fault Mr Howard's effort but I have other recordings of some of this material that I much prefer to listen to. I expect this Bach survey might suffer from the same problems.

There are other problem complete surveys. A less illustrious series of recordings were/are being made of the complete Johann Strauss II waltzes by Naxos. Some are CDs are very good and some performances are dreary.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #13 on:** 29 September, 2020, 08:23:43 pm »

Quote from: CommuteTooFar on 28 September, 2020, 08:05:12 pm

I have never enjoyed Bach as much as I should so I will not comment on it.

You do not enjoy Bach, it invades your soul.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #14 on:** 02 October, 2020, 10:58:35 am »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 03 September, 2020, 02:52:28 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC8UErdK_XE&pp=wgIECgIIAQ%3D%3D&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=gg1_KKCKE-eLHQk9%3A6

Cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich

I sang in this at last year's Bach Choral Course at St. Andrew's Uni.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPdh0loM2yM&ab_channel=VOCES8

Another performance of the same work, arguably off-topic as it's not part of the "All of Bach" project. But it's stunning.

drgannet · « **Reply #15 on:** 02 October, 2020, 11:23:36 am »

I discovered this over the summer when looking for some Bach harpsichord music. The performances are superb and I like the locations selected from all over Netherlands, including small farmhouses. Sato, as you say, is rather good.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #16 on:** 07 October, 2020, 12:31:55 pm »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnFPOm0kwdI&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=K3QfyL7ZehZrPUmr%3A6&ab_channel=NetherlandsBachSociety

A major prelude & fugue from Book 1, recorded in someone's front room.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #17 on:** 13 October, 2020, 02:52:08 pm »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVsTgzCzMgA&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=Sh0fE1qmzs6-uQ4t%3A6&ab_channel=NetherlandsBachSociety

Is there a collective noun for harpsichords?

hellymedic · « **Reply #18 on:** 13 October, 2020, 03:49:07 pm »

Goldberg Variations imminent (16.00 13/10/20) St Mary's Perivale.
https://st-marys-perivale.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f5f2985eec0c6c83db8cc471e&id=53ce52ffdf&e=1285e54ec8

Wowbagger · « **Reply #19 on:** 25 October, 2020, 09:58:58 pm »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGJ9skYNa4s&ab_channel=NetherlandsBachSociety

Bach's works for solo stringed instrument are amongst the most haunting of all music. The cello suites are probably the best-known, but there was a whole load of other stuff as well.

I'm learning an arrangement (by Frans Bruggen) of this movement for alto recorder. I'd like to hear it played by a good recorder player - it needs to be at a pretty rapid tempo to give the best effect, and I think the violinist in the performance does a great job.

Edit: found one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0Yh3wg3js&ab_channel=RiqueBorges

Bolette Roed is a very fine player.

Edit: the piece I'm learning is about 15 minutes in. She seems to be playing it on a soprano recorder with A=415 pitch, transposed up a 5th. I'm learning it on an alto.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #20 on:** 26 November, 2020, 09:40:32 am »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q091agFLRd0&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=-27y8s4w18GPkn2C%3A6&ab_channel=NetherlandsBachSociety

One of my favourites of all Bach's compositions.

andrewc · « **Reply #21 on:** 20 December, 2020, 11:12:32 pm »

https://twitter.com/scott_kerr/status/1340399932893782019?s=20

Not your normal Bach recital.

hellymedic · « **Reply #22 on:** 21 December, 2020, 02:31:26 am »

Quote from: andrewc on 20 December, 2020, 11:12:32 pm

https://twitter.com/scott_kerr/status/1340399932893782019?s=20
Not your normal Bach recital.

Amazing!

I think I've seen & heard this before.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #23 on:** 21 January, 2021, 10:20:06 am »

Not part of the Netherlands Bach Society series, but a recent Bach recital but Andras Schiff at the Wigmore Hall.

He starts off wth one of the earliest-known pieces of Bach's music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GodEbd-GhLg&ab_channel=WigmoreHall

Edit: I posted before I listened. About half-way through now. He's giving a little lecture before each piece. So far he's played two piece that I have learned to one degree or another - the F minor sinfonia and the Italian concerto. Both are utterly wonderful.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #24 on:** 29 January, 2021, 11:25:33 pm »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc-XYHWWFPg&ab_channel=PeterWalker

The Andras Schiff video linked in the previous post has inspired me to practise the F minor sinfonia. It's a very strange piece and hardly made for easy listening. It's very interesting to play though - I don't know a piece of Bach that isn't. I often wonder what was going through a composer's mind when he or she is composing a piece. I think Bach must have been particularly melancholy when he wrote this one.

As Schiff mentioned, the Inventions and Sinfonias (there are 15 of each, sometimes called two-part inventions and three part inventions) are all contrapuntal pieces composed around 1720 with the view to teaching his two oldest sons, Carl Philip Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedmann. I think they tend to get overlooked rather, possibly because of the reason he composed them. I never learned any of these until relatively recently, although I played quite a bit of Bach in my youth. I think I spent too much time studying for exams and not enough expanding my repertoire, but I suppose that's the price you pay for wanting to do O and A level music. Some of them are much more tuneful and dance-like than this one.