One reader requested "My Favorite Things German" for weeks (possible, but yikes), instead he’ll get selected tidbits, today is J.S. Bach.
1. Organ music: I favor the Trio Sonatas, most of all by Christopher Herrick. After that, buy any collection by Herrick or Peter Hurford.
2. Brandenburg Concerti: I don’t like most recordings of these; they either sound like sewing machines or they are whiny. But both Felix Prohaska or Otto Klemperer are supremely musical with these pieces.
3. Keyboard music: Go for piano not harpischord. For Well-Tempered Klavier get the dreamy Samuel Feinberg or Richter, for the English Suite in A Minor get Glenn Gould, for the Partitas get Glenn Gould, for the Goldbergs get both Gould recordings. Best of all is the Art of the Fugue, for piano, by Grigory Sokolov.
4. B Minor Mass: Gardiner or Herreweghe.
5. St. Matthew’s Passion: Klemperer (the best voices), Suzuki (all-Japanese, and fantastic), or Herreweghe.
6. Solo Violin music: Get the second Nathan Milstein set, the stereo recording. Perlman’s version is technically perfect but doesn’t sound like a real violin.
7. Solo Cello Suites: Rostropovich is romantic, Starker is analytical, and Navarra is underrated.
That, in my view, is the truly essential Bach. I’ve never developed the same love for his Cantatas, too many of them were churned out or recycled. They were better to buy on LP, when you could get one excellent cantata on each side. Most of the available CD cantata collections contain a fair amount of chaff.
#33 out of 50.
“7. Solo Cello Suites: Rostropovich is romantic, Starker is analytical, and Navarra is underrated.”
What? Not even a mention of Casals? Casals, along with Gould, opened the door to Bach for me. The first time I heard Pablo’s version, it was like hearing another language that I never knew that I knew… Rostropovitch is downright smarmy to me. Yes, his tone is big and warm, but he sounds a little too sure of himself. Not as bad as Ma of course…
Isaac
My favorite of all: Alfred Brendel’s idiosyncratic but brilliant version of the Italian Concerto.
Regarding the Art of the Fugue, I reccommend Gustav Leonhardt’s version on the harpsichord (the 1970s recording NOT the 1953 recording). One of the major problems with classical harpsichord recordings of Bach is that they tend to have been made on harpsichords that were made with modern piano sounding boards in mind. The 1953 recording is on the modern harpsichord, the 1970 recording is on a period harpsichord and sounds much better. (If you formed a dislike of harpsichord, it is very possible that you got it from listening to the hundreds of recordings available on ‘modern’ ones. I really reccomend seeking out some period harpsichord recordings).
That said, the Gustav Leonhardt recording of the piece that record companies keep putting out is the much worse 1953 version. It is perverse to do that, as the 1970 recording is universally considered to be better, but you know classical publishing companies. I lucked in to the good recording in my high school years, my email address is above if you want me to send a ‘sample’.
I think, everyone has his own favorites, but for the Art of Fugue, I would also recommend the orchestrated version by Musica Antiqua Köln; very lively and wonderfully played.
Charles Rosen on Piano for Art of the Fugue. And Rosalyn Tureck for the Goldberg variations.
Herreweghe has some nice box sets of cantatas recorded. They are pretty inexpensive, and the oratorios are worth listening to.
I prefer the controversial McCreesh recording of the Passion. If one wants to get a historically informed performance, he may as well go all the way.
Bach is mathematics with a soul.
I can’t believe you’re recommending Gardiner’s recording of the B-minor Mass. It takes a beautiful piece of music and makes it ugly.
for the Goldbergs get both Gould recordings
Both? He actually recorded Goldberg in 1954 (live), 1955, 1959 (live), and 1981. I’m partial to the 1959 version, for the reasons expressed here, but I frankly haven’t ever sat down to listen to all four versions back-to-back.
Old farts should not ignore Hilary Hahn’s recording of partitas 2&3 and sonata 3; she was just a wee lass, but they’re stunning. Fournier on the cello is also nice.
Oops, didn’t see that Bachwards had already mention McCreesh. And sorry for those page-stretching URLs.
The Brandenburg Concertos are the closest in my imaginings to the angelic choirs that it is our hope to hear after this life, only the angelic choirs perform them in tune. Why do we have so many mis-tuned performances for this life?
Bach was a master of harmony and the Brandenburg Concertos are replete with seventh chords and modulations of seventh chords any many more harmonic devices I lack the technical knowledge to describe. There is a recording of “Winter Wonderland” that someone would always play at the local skating show of Annie Lennox doing overdub seventh chord harmony that is thrilling in its effect, and yes, that is a schlock rendering of an overplayed pop tune. But the Brandenburg Concertos are supposed to sound just like that, only better to an undescribable degree, because they are Bach, not Annie Lennox doing pop-schlock.
What is it about conservatory-trained musicians being incapable of rendering harmony? They have equal-tempered scales so thoroughly beaten into them by their training and indoctrination that when just intervals are produced they cover their ears and howl about how out-of-tune that sounds. There is such a thorough lack of understanding, misunderstanding, or lack of love for anything Bach that a conservatory recital places Bach early on the program as bitter medicine that both the performer and the audience have to take, and then they move on to something later for which they have greater understanding and passion.
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