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Why I bought a 155 CD set- and Happy Birthday Herr Bach !

Posted by Bambi B (A) on March 21, 2007 at 12:32:42

Mates,

As it's J.S. Bach's birthday- 257 years old but as fresh as ever, I'm celebrating by playing his music all day. Sorry to digress to audio content a moment, but a couple of days ago, I reorganised the office system to spend more time with a McIntosh MR77 in my home tuner trials: Revox B160 (1988), McIntosh MR67 (1965) and McIntosh MR77 (1974) and simultaneously I put the Cambrisge Audio 640C CD player on the "direct" input of the Audio Research LS3. Something happened in this minor reordering/cleaning and for some reason the MR77 and the 640C sound better than I 've ever heard them- is it that I cut 10' out of each speaker cable?

But back to Bach. I'm a lifelong fan of Bach. I rememebr as a tiny tot sitting under my father's 1923 Steinway "A" while he played Bach and as a teenager I thought Bach's Fantasy and Fugue in Gmin was the greatest piece ever written. I built a harpsichord kit when I was 15 and wanted to be a harpsichord builder before making the mistake of studying architecture.

But, in the twilight of my life, I realised that after hearing so much Bach, I still had not heard everything he'd written. Bach is like any composer, even with the works of geniuses, not everything rises to popularity and over the years as I've pursued the complete works of composers whose music I really like, I don't feel I 've done my duty by them until I hear everything. There are, in this process- always "discoveries" for me- and not only of academic interest, but also many previously unknown jewels. As a keyboard fanatic, I have the complete keyboard work sets of William Byrd- a great 7 CD set by Moroney, Rameau- Scott Ross, J.J. Froberger- one of my favourites-by Richard Egarr, Francois Couperin by Kenneth Gilbert, Buxtehude organ, and Sweelinck. I'm working on the complete Scarlatti Sonatas by Belder, having about 1/3 of the 550. I also have the complete lute works of John Dowland by Paul O'Dette and as you may know, the lute as a contrapuntal instrument of a large range, was influential in 16th and 17th Century keyboard composition.

With Bach, many keyboard works were teaching pieces- the "Clavieruebung" or "keyboard practice", and Bach had a unique way of making these teaching pieces, exciting enough to stimulate and encourage students to work them out. The two and three part inventions and the Well-Tempered Clavier are examples of great works that wrew really designed to make students learn technique, ornamentation, and expression. Many of these are familiar works, but how many here know the "Vier Duetten" (4 Duets) usually palyed on organ? These are just wonderful bump and grind, chromatic and dynamic pieces, but rarely broadcast or programmed in recitals.

With all this in mind, I jumped at what I see as one of the greatest bargain purchases of my life- the 155- CD set of the complte works of J.S. Bach on Brilliant Classics. The astounding thing is that this comprehensive set includes all the haprsichord , organ, chamber, sacred vocal, and - there are 60 CDs of the Cantatas and a few weeks ago n Amazon.com I bought this set for $107 shipping included. To save unnecessary arithmetic for you- that's $.70 per CD, which I find almost impossible! I was interested in that I recently finally found 4 Valvo blue label 6201s (12AT7) and the price of the complete works of Bach was exactly the same!

I've now heard all the organ and harpsichord, about half of the chamber, the Bmin Mass, and about 20 CAntatas. And lest you think thisis a slap dash set of discount performances, there are really fine performances and recordings in each category, some licensed from BIS and other European labels with generally good digital recordings from the late 80's and 90's.

The organ works are by Hans Fagius on historic organs in Scandanavia and Germany, and he's an appropriately energetic player with a very nice approach to registration that is more lively than the sometimes restrained German players like Walcha and especially Leonhart both of whom I like, but tend not to use tonal colour variety and terrace dynamics as much. Very nice and I've heard quite a few pieces I've either not heard or not remembered.

With harpsichord, most of the recordings are by Belder, who has a very good sense of pace and a refined technique. I really liked his Scarlatti and with those 550 pieces he doesn't just toss off the pieces that are less interesting or famous, but applies the same digilence consistently. Not as exciting as Igor Kipnis or Kirkpatrick, but does just fine and uses historic-based harpsichords. One of my harpsichord test pieces is the amazing hand-crossing "Fantasy in Cmin" and while Kirkpatrick is the king of that piece, Belder does really well and gives it the excitement it warrants. Another player on the set is Christiane Wuyts, who I didn't know before, but has great expression and plays on a 1754 Hemsch and 1774 Goerman, two fine French instruments. I've played the Hemsch (30 years ago) and these recordings- !988 Digipro Belgium- really does reproduce the unique timbre of that intrument which has a little bite- a tinge of the drier Italian style instrument- than the very lush Taskin/Couchet/Blanchet sound we hear most often. Her Capriccio BWV 992 is superb- a difficult piece with which to maintain coherence. Several discs are by Menno van Delft, who I met and heard in Italy, and has de facto taken over from Leonhardt at the Amsterdam Conserv. and Menno has a delightful, slightly playful style- actually more fun than his teacher. Menno is a fine clavichord player too and Bach advocated the clavichord as a way to improve expressivity. I should have liked it if this set had at least a few clavichord selections, as this was an important inmstrument to Bach, but one can't have everything!

The Chamber works are well done too, with several ensembles I didn't know, but who take them seriously.

The big scared choral works are pieces I have very high standards for and while the Bmin Mass is competent, I found some of these performances not as engaging, but this is only in comparison to the best examples of these. This is somewhat true of the Cantatas, of which I think there are about 200, but in my partial exploration of these, I 've heard some fantastic individual ones and the recordings have been good and some discs have very fine performers like Peter Schrier. I forget somtimes what wonderful works are the Cantatas- endlessly inventive and passionate. What would have happened if Bach had lived in the 19th Century and written operas?

I got a bit stuck on the keyboard works, hearing some pieces two and three times, so I'm still workng through, and by the Summer I expect I will have heard everything.

It's a kind of study and somewhat an academic exercise, but can there be more pleasant work?

Run, don't walk to your nearest Amazon.com and for the price of a pair of shoes, immerse yourself in some of the greatest music in history, satisfied that in your lifetime, nothing from this transcendental genius got away,..

And happy Birthday, Herr Bach! Sorry- now I feel I know you better than ever- may I call you "Johann"?

Cheers,

Bambi B

21 March, 2007

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