153 CDs representing nearly four decades of Bach performance on period instruments“a lifetime’s exalted listening, invariably presented with love, enthusiasm and conscientious musicianship.” - GramophoneThe Complete Bach Edition, 153 CDs in 12 volumes comprising Bach’s complete works performed by world renowned Bach interpreters on period instruments, constitutes one of the most ambitious projects in recording history.The Complete Bach Edition represents the culmination of a process that began over five decades ago, in 1958, with the creation of the DAS ALTE WERK label. After initially triggering an impassioned controversy, Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s belief that “Early music is a foreign language which must be learned by musicians and listeners alike” has found widespread acceptance. He and his colleagues searched for original instruments to throw new light on composers and their works and significantly influenced the history of music interpretation in the second half of this century. Their ideas have been shared by many fellow musicians, among them Ton Koopman, Il Giardino Armonico, Luca Pianca and Andreas Staier, all of whose performances appear in the COMPLETE BACH Edition. As an entirety, the Complete Bach Edition offers listeners the chance to rediscover the astonishing developments in Bach interpretation of the last forty years and the tonal beauties of Bach’s works performed on period instruments. Without Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s and Gustav Leonhardt’s groundbreaking accounts of the cantatas, a complete Bach edition would have been inconceivable. But with the recording of Bach's Complete Sacred Cantatas as inspiration, not to mention Harnoncourt’s 1970 St. Matthew Passion and Gustav Leonhardt’s legendary 1965 account of the Goldberg Variations, the early 1990's found Teldec in an extraordinary position: able to embark on the artistic, financial and logistical adventure to record and license recordings of the remainder of Bach’s oeuvre and present a complete edition in time for the 250th anniversary of his death. From Schleicht, spielende Wellen, BWV 206, recorded by the Monteverdi Choir Hamburg, Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra, Jürgen Jürgens and André Rieu in 1963 to the Trio in A major, BWV 1025 with Werner Ehrhardt and Gerald Hambitzer recorded in April 1999, COMPLETE BACH chronicles nearly four decades of Bach performance on period instruments. By 1995, the year in which the project the Complete Bach Edition was conceived, Teldec had already committed approximately two thirds of Bach's oeuvre to disc. Subsequently the company produced approximately twenty new recordings specifically for The Complete Bach Edition. Many of these new recordings were of works never before available on disc, including chorales, as well as works for organ and works for harpsichord.Criteria for a Complete Bach EditionThe Complete Bach Edition includes all works that modern scholarship regards as authentically composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Where Bach made extensive changes to works in order to adapt them to meet the demands of later performances, the alternative versions have also been included. Incomplete works have been included when their musical substance was deemed valuable, although where fragments consist of only a few bars, these are not included. COMPLETE BACH also includes a handful of reconstructions of lost works, the existence of which is fully verified but which have not survived as such. Finally, a few inauthentic pieces are included, where they are inextricably associated with Bach’s name and are so familiar that their exclusion would have been regretted.“I have never felt that Bach’s work was in any way routine […]. Each new cantata, each new aria is an adventure, an exciting discovery.I know of no other composer who explores the whole range of music from the strictest counterpoint to romantic expressionism and who at the same time pushes back the boundaries of that world as comprehensively as Bach” - Nikolaus HarnoncourtGroups of Works Included in Teldec’s Complete Bach EditionCentral to the Complete Bach Edition are the sacred cantatas, recorded between 1971 and 1989 by the Concentus Musicus Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Leonhardt Consort under Gustav Leonhardt with soloists including Barbara Bonney, Thomas Hampson, Paul Esswood, Kurt Equiluz, Max van Egmond and Robert Holl. This was the first complete edition of the sacred cantatas performed on period instruments in the history of the gramophone and remains so to this day. The set won the Erasmus Prize in 1980, before it was even completed. Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra subsequently recorded the secular cantatas. Bach wrote over 400 chorale settings but left no collection of his own in the form of a published or publishable volume of chorales. His pupil, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, went to great lengths to make good this omission. Between 1784 and 1787 four volumes appeared in print containing a total of 371 chorale settings, most of which are familiar to us from the composer’s cantatas, motets, oratorios and Passions. But there are around 186 chorales that cannot be ascribed to surviving works or were part of lost compositions or teaching material. These have been collected and recorded in their entirety for the first time ever by the Rundfunkchor Berlin under its British-born conductor Robin Gritton. With regard to the rarely performed or recorded Schemelli Songs, there is disagreement about the authenticity of several of these. For the Complete Bach Edition Teldec has selected those known to be authentic and most likely to be authentic; they are performed by Christoph Prégardien, Klaus Mertens, Ton Koopman and Jaap ter Linden. Bach’s fame in his own lifetime rested not only on his gifts as a composer but also, and more especially, on his exceptional abilities as an organist. Since 1994, Ton Koopman has recorded Bach’s complete works for organ on famous historic organs in the Netherlands and Germany. Foremost among these are the instruments in Freiberg Cathedral, built by Gottfried Silbermann, an organ builder with whom Bach had a professional association, and the organ in Hamburg’s Jacobikirche, built by Arp SchnitgerFor Bach’s complete works for keyboard, the Complete Bach Edition has chosen to use the harpsichord. Included are such releases as Gustav Leonhardt’s groundbreaking account of the Goldberg Variations as well as recent recordings of Bach's transcriptions of the sonatas after Reincken by Andreas Staier, toccatas by Bob van Asperen and concertos, fugues and other works by harpsichordist Michele Barchi. Barchi also plays the Suites BWV 996 and 997 on a historic lute-harpsichord specially built for this Edition. Additional lute works are performed by Luca Pianca, an internationally acclaimed lutenist and theorbo player and a co-founder of Il Giardino Armonico.The Cello Suites were recorded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt in 1965 and appear in the Complete Bach Edition for the first time on CD. The edition includes Bach's solo violin works performed by Thomas Zehetmair and the violin sonatas performed by Alice Harnoncourt (violin), Nikolaus Harnoncourt (viola da gamba) and Herbert Tachezi (harpsichord).Of the orchestral repertoire, the Brandenburg Concerti are represented by the highly acclaimed Il Giardino Armonico recordings released in 1997. The orchestral suites are performed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the harpsichord concerti by Gustav Leonhardt.Also included in the Complete Bach Edition are Nikolaus Harnoncourt's 1970 legendary recording of the St Matthew Passion with Concentus musicus Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor as well as his 1995 recording of the St John Passion with the same forces.
J**E
Absolutely no regrets
I have had my eye on versions of this box for at least a couple of years now, but doubts as to the possible quality of its contents have always obliged me to refrain from making the commitment. After all, given the price of some of the more costly complete Bach boxes out there, how could this box be anything other than ropey old recordings of ropey old performances? Indeed, to some extent, it was actually the unbelievably low price that prevented me from taking the plunge, making it seem just far too good a proposition to be true. This is evidently something that some marketing bod, somewhere, has switched on to lately, because I bought mine at £70, and now, six weeks later, when I come to write a review, it's selling at a more realistic £140. All the same, knowing what I know about the quality of the contents, I would still have no hesitation about paying the asking price, and would still think I was getting the better of the bargain.The collection is broken up into six colour coded categories; orchestral works, solo keyboard, as performed on harpsichord, two sets of cantatas, other vocal works of assorted scales and then the organ works. For good measure we have performances on DVD of the Matthew and John Passions, and a DVD ROM that includes, amongst other things, the scores in their entirety.First thing to say is about the recording quality. I have taken ample samples in most categories now, and it is apparent that the recording quality is uniformly excellent throughout. Not just adequate, but excellent, with each performance placed in a suitable location to guarantee a sympathetic acoustic, and then recorded so as to capture its full depth.The collection opens with a set of Brandenburgs, which for vigour and vivacity easily knock my more famous Pinnock's into a cocked hat. This is followed by a set of Orchestral Suites, of which, till now, my Koopman discs had given me a rather cold and synthetic impression, but these are warm and sparkling. As to the keyboard works, well I guess if I am honest I prefer hearing them played with the greater expressiveness that the piano allows. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the two Well Tempered Klavier books I have listened to so far, and am very much looking forward to what is to come.Then the cantatas. It is probably for these that I got the box in the first place. I have recordings of some of `the usual suspects', mostly by Eliot Gardiner, and I have wanted for a long while to explore that territory much more thoroughly. However, with the exception of this box, the options open to the collector are pretty pricey, especially as you don't know what you're letting yourself in for. After all, was it not possible that the popular cantatas are popular is precisely because the rest are inferior in some way? I have been dipping into the cantatas on a random basis and the first thing I have learned is that not only are none inferior, but that each is entirely different. I must have listened on coming up for two dozen by now, and there is no sense of them becoming samey. There are long ones, short ones, fat ones and thin ones, and an endless variety of moods, and of course, melodic invention. A wonderful thing I have discovered about the cantatas is that they are never inappropriate. Whatever mood I am in, whether too quiet for symphonies, or too alert for chamber music, these cantatas fit the mood perfectly at any time. Though I do have to say that, it is with respect to the cantatas, that very occasionally a quality deficit can show through. Specifically, there are a couple of tenors featuring on some performances, who clearly show the strain when the demands on them become a little athletic. These are an annoyance, but they crop up so rarely as to hardly impact the value of the total package. These are made up for by several other fine soloists, including a soprano whose purity is reminiscent of the glorious Emma Kirkby. Then there are the boy's voices with their wonderful transparency.I have yet to dip into the miscellaneous vocal works, and the organ works, of which I have tried one so far, are going to present me with a learning curve as, until now, I have steered clear of organ music on CD. I think that's because for me, organ music is so much to do with the building in which it is played, and there are sonic elements that a living room hi-fi is never going to re-create. Still, I now have a dozen or so discs of organ music with which to see if I can get the hang of it.Absolutely no regrets that I took the plunge, despite advice, both for and against. I guess it is the other reviewers I have to thank for finally tipping the balance. Thanks to you all. For anyone wondering whether to give it a go, there's still some cheap ones going on the Amazon Marketplace if you hurry. Just hold your breath and press that old button. You'll be so glad that you did.
S**R
An amazing set - years of listening
I've got to give this five stars, for several reasons: 1) There's so much great music here 2) The value is terrific 3) Lots of the recordings are terrific 4) This kind of combines points 1 & 2, but it's also a point in itself: this is Bach's complete works.There are reasons why some, me included, might want to dock points: there are different recordings of almost all the contents which may, in side-by-side comparisons, be preferred for any number of reasons, from instrumentation, to interpretation, to audio-quality, or even packaging and info; one might even consider it 'too much', even if too much of a good thing; the nature of the set has resulted in the usual accompanying info, from texts to critical commentary and even scores, being included as PDFs, rather than hard copy.I'm no expert in classical music, and probably never will be. But I do know that I have liked a lot of the Bach I've heard, and when I bought this, a little while ago now, I already had a growing Bach section on the CD-shelves. It was when I was contemplating getting a complete organ works set that I decided instead to get this. It wasn't that much more than the several complete organ works sets I was looking at, and yet it contained so very, very much more.There are some quibbles in certain areas - some audible and to my ears distracting 'snuffling' in some of the Jakob Lindberg Lute recordings, for example - or the fact that endless recordings of certain repertoire on the same instruments can tire the ear somewhat. For example, the keyboard works across a large swathe of CDs are all performed on a particular instrument, rather than on a number of different types. I have some of the same repertoire performed not only on different type of keyboard, but even totally different instruments. This must've been quite a tricky thing to decide, but it appears that Brilliant Classics chose to be simple and consistent, and play everything on period instruments (I haven't looked into this; this is just a guess based on the sounds of the recordings).Comparing this set with an incomplete but similarly large Vivaldi set (40 CDs, as opposed to the 160 discs here) that I bought for my wife, has been interesting. Slightly to my own surprise, we both get more consistent enjoyment from the Vivaldi. We get plenty from the Bach set too, and there is material in both sets, more in the Bach set, unsurprisingly, that we still haven't heard. But ultimately it leaves me finding the Vivaldi a more simple, immediate and consistent pleasure, whereas the Bach set, capable of giving equal pleasure at times, feels like a more serious, even scholarly, affair.There's so much to dip into, whether to study intently or simply to have on in the background, or whatever the occasion seems to require. This Christmas we had our first listen to his 'Weihnachts-Oratorium', and it was both interesting and enjoyable. I'm not a fan of opera, sacred or secular, but this sort of thing on the right sort of occasion is helping me gradually get to grips with it, and even enjoy it! When I bought this set, it was already great value, at about £110. Now, at the time of writing this review, it's under £95! Amazing value!!
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