j.s. bach. complete recordings. 172 cd hanssler edition

If I would call any of these cycles “old-fashioned”, it would probably be that of Rilling. Despite the new trends, I still hold Leonhardt’s “uncompromising” approach as the golden standard. In his book, Bruce Haynes has called this new style Baroque Lite. Since period Baroque performance has since gone mainstream, there seems to be a tendency to move away from the Klangrede (rhetorical) approach to seek a kind of compromise with the “romantic/modernist” style, in order to meet general public halfway. Most of the new generation of prominent Bach cantata conductors owe a lot to this man: Herreweghe (his former choir master), Kuijken (his colleague), Koopman (his student), Suzuki (Koopman’s student), not to mention here that almost every prominent harpsichordist has taken lessons with him. But I think the concept and approach is marvellous, with some excellent participants like Bylsma, Bruggen and Egmont. Surely, with the present large pool of competent period performers one could aim at a higher technical standard than in the 1970s – there is certainly some unevenness, especially with the boys and wind instruments. During the twenty year period of recording, for Leonhardt this meant about one recording session per year in Haarlem, the Netherlands.

Personally, I much prefer Leonhardt.Īlthough the two men shared a number of singers (Equiluz, Esswood, Egmont), they worked on the project independently. Leonhardt (RIP) and Harnoncourt are often mentioned in one breath, but in reality they are very different characters with different approaches. How time flies! I still have great esteem for the Teldec Sacred Cantata cycle, which I purchased, volume by volume, in the early 1990’s. Thomas Church in Leipzig on Bach’s 300th anniversary in 1985. I was privileged to attend a performance of St.

The 172 CDs come packaged with a CD-ROM containing all notes and texts. (They offer very good recordings by James Kibbie of Bach's complete organ works for free!).

J.s. bach. complete recordings. 172 cd hanssler edition