Interchanging Idioms

The Berliner Philharmoniker is releasing today their live recording of the St Matthew Passion, in a semi-staged “ritualization” by director Peter Sellars, on DVD and Blu-ray. Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, who called these performances “the single most important thing we ever did here,” the production was called “the most moving concert and music theatre event of the season” by the Berliner Zeitung. The St Matthew Passion was recorded live at the Philharmonie in Berlin on April 11, 2010; the last of five sold out performances. The DVD and Blu-ray will be released on The Berliner Philharmoniker’s own label available exclusively at the Berlin Philharmonie shop and the Berliner Philharmoniker online shop at www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/shop . Soloists for the performance were soprano Camilla Tilling, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, tenor Topi Lehtipuu, tenor Mark Padmore, baritone Thomas Quasthoff, baritone Christian Gerhaher with the Rundfunkchor Berlin (Berlin Radio Cho...

Electrifying New Arrangements of Three Bach Cello Suites With Naren Budhakar on Tabla and Anthony Burr on Organ On March 27, 2012, eOne will release Bach: An Imaginary Dance , an electrifying recording of three of Bach’s cello suites. Cellist Charles Curtis along with producer Robert Sadin have crossed space and time to bring into the studio one of the most ancient sources of rhythm – the tabla drum – along with additional organ colors in their re-interpretations of Bach’s C Major Suite, E Flat Suite and G Major Suite. Together, Curtis and Sadin bring a respectful yet fresh look at some of music’s most beloved works. The inspiration behind these new arrangements resides in the essential wellspring of dance. Bach took Baroque dance forms as the template for his sublime abstractions, spinning webs of music that have entranced, mystified and exalted the spirits of musicians and audiences for hundreds of years. It is safe to say that there has never been an interpretation of the suit...

On March 21th, 2012 eOne Music relaunches the storied Bach Guild label with Big Bach Set – 120 tracks of Bach’s works, equaling NINE hours of music. In celebration of Bach’s birthday, March 21st, Big Bach Set will be sold for 99 cents at Amazon.com’s MP3 store. On March 22nd, the price will be $9.99 for the collection, available for download at all digital retailers. Big Bach Set will include a cross section of J.S. Bach’s most beloved works including the entirety of the Mass in B Minor, the Harpsichord Concerti, Orchestral Suites and all six Brandenburg Concerti. Artists include Joseph Szigeti, Anton Heiller, Paula Robison, Kenneth Cooper and András Schiff. Conductors include Johannes Somary, Antonio Janigro and Felix Prohaska. The Big Bach Set is the cornerstone of the return of The Bach Guild, a label devoted to Bach and the music of the baroque era. With the revival of the imprint, the classic recordings of the Bach Guild catalog will be made available, many of them for ...

Violinist Jennifer Koh will perform all six of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin at the Academy of Arts and Letters presented by Columbia University’s Miller Theatre on Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 2:00 pm. This recital marks the first time Ms. Koh will perform the complete Sonatas and Partitas in a single concert, a feat long considered the ultimate test of a violinist’s command of their instrument. Ms. Koh’s performance is part of Miller Theatre’s “Bach and the Baroque” three concert series, aimed to provide an in-depth look at the composer’s music. The concert will take place in the auditorium at the Academy of Arts and Letters, located at 632 West 156 Street, and include two brief intermissions. Tickets for the performance, priced at $40, are available at www.millertheatre.com , by phone at 212-854-7799 or in person at the box office at 2960 Broadway. Discounts are available for students and seniors. In 2009, Ms. Koh performed Bach’s Sonatas and Parti...

This spring, the musical offerings at Trinity Wall Street will be richer and more ambitious than ever, highlighting the church’s commitment to presenting holy music in its hallowed spaces. The performances and music accompanying worship services range from Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred masterpieces (including the St. Matthew Passion) to a new series for the reflective season of Lent that will explore civil rights activism through jazz and storytelling.

"Vladimir Ashkenazy is one of the great pianists of modern times, with a legacy of landmark solo and concerto recordings to challenge anybody's" – The Daily Telegraph Vladimir Ashkenazy has been an exclusive recording artist with Decca since 1963, and in all his 200 albums as pianist or conductor he has never recorded Bach's monumental 6 Partitas (BWV 825-830). The "undisputed legend" (Time Out) brings a lifetime of musical discernment to these immense pieces, available from Decca on August 10, 2010. Published under the general title of Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice), the 6 Partitas were immediately popular and quickly became core repertoire for all keyboard players. Each partita, or suite of dance movements, is unique in form and originality, and combines the engaging qualities of grace, playfulness and nobility. These were the last set of suites for solo keyboard that Bach composed (though the first to be published) and are the most technical...

Richard Galliano, surely one of the most recognizable names associated with the accordion, has crossed musical boundaries collaborating with top jazz musicians, giving solo recitals and performing as soloist with orchestras. His wide-ranging interests and career have finally led him to record Bach, though he has practiced and performed the music for many years. Deutsche Grammophon is proud to release this all-new recording of Bach as performed on the accordion, available June 29, 2010. Richard Galliano feels no need to change Bach’s music to suit the accordion: he plays everything as written. “Bach’s music is universal,” says Galliano. “When I play it, I don’t change a note, not a breath, not a rest . . . I play the text complete, without any adaptation . . . In the prelude from the Cello Suite, I use only the left hand’s keyboard to play the cello part. At first I tried to harmonize it, to play it as on an organ, with the right hand at the octave . . . Ultimately, each time I t...

Simone Dinnerstein presented Bach's Goldberg Variations in an understated performance at the Newman Center in Denver tonight. With no fanfare or extended dialog with the audience, Ms. Dinnerstein came out on stage and held the audience enwrapt for nearly an hour and a half, working her way meticulously through the 32 variations originally published in 1741. Her grace and fluidity throughout the program were ever present, but it was her mastery of shifts in style and interpretation that really held the audience captive. The opening "Aria" is a slow pensive piece requiring a deep understanding of the nuances in the music, the long melodic lines only making sense if they are played with sense of the whole and not just note to note. Ms Dinnerstein provided the most delicate shades from one note to the next to perfectly capture the lines in all their beauty. Much later in the program, the dark anguish of "Variation 21, Canon at the Seventh," had the same luxuri...

Bach - Violin and Voice to be released January 4, 2010 with Hilary Hahn • Christine Schäfer • Matthias Goerne Grammy® award winning violinist Hilary Hahn releases a stunning album of Bach’s compositions for voice and violin. The works chosen, all from Bach’s Leipzig years and dating from around 1724 to 1739, are part of the composer’s core output. The cantatas form a central part of his canon, and his mastery of integrating instrumental and vocal writing created some of the most moving and haunting works imaginable. This is Hahn’s second Bach album on Deutsche Grammophon and her first to collaborate with vocalists. She is joined by Christine Schäfer and Matthias Goerne throughout the recording. “That this project has come to fulfillment – and with such superb colleagues – is for me a dream come true. These magnificent pieces go to the heart of Bach’s artistry as a composer of polyphony: multiple voices, at once clean and complex, presenting layer beneath layer for discovery. No...

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 Releases November 17 on Deutsche Grammophon New York, NY (October 27, 2009) – World-renowned pianist Maurizio Pollini releases his first-ever recording of Bach on Deutsche Grammophon, available November 17, 2009. With a career that has already spanned almost 50 years (he was awarded first prize in the 1960 Chopin competition), Pollini continues to challenge himself both on stage and in the recording studio. Recording a composer for the first time is always a milestone, recording a composer for the first time after performing for almost 50 years is a unique milestone, and when that composer is Bach and the pianist is Pollini the recording becomes a major event. This project, a summit meeting of two masters, has been in the making for decades. Pollini has regularly performed Bach and specifically selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier for more than twenty years in concert but has only just now chosen to record this landmark work and composer. T...

Murray Perahia is releasing a new album of Bach partitas for the piano, Bach Partitas1, 5, and 6 . This is a follow up album to his universally acclaimed first album, Bach Partitas 2, 3, 4 . Well, he has done it again. His lyrical mastery of the piano brings these lovely little suites to life. Even the most florid moments are played so delicately as to simply pour like liquid gold from the piano without seeming garish or flamboyant – quite the opposite, it is impossible to imagine them any different. Each individual phrase is shines in its place, allowing the intricate polyphonic interweaving of Bach’s melodies to play out in perfect synchronicity. Many of the movements are based on dances. In Bach’s Partita No. 1 the Gigue is a delightful play with a running series of mini arpeggios underneath a rather staccato melody which dances all around the arpeggios. Mr Perahia’s ability to crest and fall without causing the piece to rush or drag is simply amazing. Bach’s Partita N...