Concertos Italiens - Alexandre Tharaud joue Bach

 

Release Date: 03/08/2005 Label: Harmonia Mundi Number of discs: 1 Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach Performer: Alexandre Tharaud cd info/ buy

Review:

Alexandre Tharaud is a remarkable pianist who has assembled a far-from-conventional program of Bach transcriptions based on Italian concertos, all of which serve to frame scintillating performances of the German composer's own Italian Concerto BWV 971. In this, the major work on the disc, Tharaud's rendition must be accounted one of the most successful available. In the outer movements, he correctly avails himself of every pianistic tool at his disposal, including beautifully proportioned gradations in dynamics, to clarify the distinction between solo and tutti passages, and the result has even more structural clarity (and therefore expressive point) then most performances on harpsichord. The central andante shows Tharaud sensitive (as he is in all of these slow movements) to the need to cultivate a true cantabile style of phrasing, with ornamentation that is just that: an embellishment and not an excess of decoration that buries the long, lyrical melodic line. There are many high points in the remaining works as well, but I have to give special mention to the Vivaldi Concerto in G minor BWV 975. The way Tharaud launches the work, gently, only gradually allowing the main tempo to emerge as the density of the writing increases, strikes me as absolutely brilliant and wholly in keeping with the character of the music, while his touch in the central Largo is breathtaking, the final bars simply exquisite. It's one of those movements that, taken out of context and played on the radio or in a film, could make this disc a runaway best-seller. The two Marcello-based concertos (BWV 974 and 981) make a well-contrasted pair, one on the standard fast-slow-fast pattern, the other in four movements with an opening Adagio. Vivaldi's short and peppy G major concerto BWV 973 makes a perfect conclusion, and there's even an encore, the Andante from BWV 979. This last item, taken in tandem with the delicious Sicilienne from BWV 596, and the smartly placed Aria de la Pastorale from BWV 590 (between the Vivaldi G minor and the Bach Italian Concerto), show the care with which Tharaud has assembled this program, which makes an absolutely perfect, satisfying whole when played straight through. Toss in ideally warm and lucid recorded sound, and the result impresses me as one of the finest Baroque keyboard recitals in many years, a masterpiece of programming and execution that will deliver hours and hours of listening pleasure. You will be enchanted.--David Hurwitz

 

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Bach JS - Violin Concertos - Suske, Masur, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Release Date: 08/22/2006 Label: Berlin Classics Number of discs: 1 Composer: JS Bach Performer: Karl Suske, Kurt Masur, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra cd info/ buy

Review:

The German conductor, Kurt Masur, is one of the most widely admired and respected musicians of his generation, well known to orchestras and audiences not only as a distinguished conductor, but also as a humanist. In his capacity as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Kapellmeister, he led nearly a thousand performances between 1970 and 1996 and more than nine hundred concerts on tour. For many seasons, Kurt Masur served as Gewandhaus Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, a position of profound historic importance that has been held by such figures as Felix Mendelssohn, Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Bruno Walter. Upon his retirement from this post in 1996, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig named him its first-ever Conductor Laureate. His close and intense collaboration with the New York Philharmonic, where he has been Music Director from 1991 - 2001, has been marked by a consistently high quality of playing and artistic spirit. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the world's leading orchestras, and holds the lifetime title of Honorary Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Bach JS - A Strange Beauty - Simone Dinnerstein

 

Release Date: January 18, 2011 Label: Sony Number of discs: 1 Composer:  JS Bach Performer: Simone Dinnerstein cd info/ buy

Review:

Simone Dinnerstein's newest recording has been circulating among the cognoscenti for a while now and finally it has been released. It is a complete pleasure. Aptly titled Bach: A Strange Beauty, the album includes Keyboard Concerti Nos. 1 BWV 1052 and No. 5 BWV 1056 which she performs with the Kammerorchester Staatskapelle Berlin, the English Suite No 3 BWV 808, and three choral transcriptions for keyboard alone. Not to be outdone with the display of technical facility she offered in her Goldberg Variations recording, here Dinnerstein is drawn more to the elegant and gently Bach. Her touch is rich and full and is well suited to these works. There are high points, such as the Largo movement from the Concerto No. 5 - as richly romantic as Bach can be played (!), and the choral transcriptions are refreshingly elegant. The entire recoding is very well produced and there is not a disappointing aspect of this project by an artist who commands our respect.

 

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