Bach JS - Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069 - Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists

 

Release Date: 26 April 1993 Label: Erato Number of discs: 2 Composer: JS Bach  Performer: John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists cd info/ buy

Review:

Some fine morning, one suspects, we will awaken to learn that nothing in the standard repertoire was actually written by the composer of record, or, if it was, it was not in the form in which it has come down to us. The latest subjects of scrutiny to come to light are the orchestral suites of Bach. Do not be alarmed; all were composed by Johann Sebastian. But the second, it seems, was not originally intended for the flute, and the glorious trumpets in the third and fourth were afterthoughts. The First Orchestral Suite, as we know it, is apparently what Bach intended it to be. Whether this revelation comes as a disappointment is not for me to know. This set of Bach's four Orchestral Suites from the English Baroque Soloists under their conductor, John Eliot Gardiner, is both interesting and, in the main, enjoyable. Interesting, because Gardiner, characteristically, gives us an account of the music which does not slavishly adhere to all the notions of performing style currently in fashion—his view of the grand opening gestures of the overtures themselves, for instance, is notably more expansive than that of most of his competitors in the field, Enjoyable because, in the first place Gardiner, has always, to my mind, a marvellous feeling for dance rhythms and secondly, he has a band capable of producing some ravishing sounds. In this respect both conductor and players are particularly well served by a pleasing acoustic. An impressive set which should find plenty of admirers.

 

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Fasch - Concertos from Dresden and Darmstadt - Il Gardellino

 

Release Date: October 28, 2008 Label: Accent Records Number of discs: 1 Composer: Johann F Fasch Performer: Il Gardellino cd info/ buy

Review:

The 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758) arrived 2008. Fasch wasn’t ignored, but his anniversary appears to have been under-celebrated, as was Telemann’s when the tercentenary of his birth occurred in 1981. Fasch was another one of those composers who, like Graupner and Heinichen, has been overshadowed by composers like Telemann and Vivaldi. Fasch undertook a long journey that involved several courts and cities, including a tenure in near ideal circumstances in Prague with Count Morzin, but it was only after the third time that a position in Zerbst landed in his lap (and following a letter to the composer from his father-in-law) that Fasch made the change. Fasch would spend the rest of his life there, although in his last years he faced constant financial difficulties as evidenced by surviving numerous petitions received by Fasch’s employer. Fasch’s reticence to make the change appears to have been well founded, as the workload in Zerbst was immense. He not only had to compose a large quantity of church music, but also provide music for special occasions and perform time-consuming and laborious administrative work. These responsibilities made the Zerbst post one of the most coveted in the region, and Fasch made an effort to keep it so by establishing and maintaining contact with Johann Christoph Graupner in Darmstadt (with whom Fasch studied for three months in 1714), Johann Georg Pisendel and Johann David Heinichen in Dresden, and Georg Philipp Telemann in Hamburg. In this way, Fasch was able to have his music performed outside of Zerbst and thereby establish a reputation in important music centers. But this turned out to be a quid pro quo, as it gave Fasch an opportunity to access and presumably perform music from other courts. This accounts for the fact that there are several sources for some of Fasch’s works, making it difficult to assess. But it appears that most of the vocal works are lost while most of the instrumental works survive. Fasch’s output includes 87 orchestral suites scored for a variety of instruments, including just over six dozen concertos. These form the next most significant portion of Fasch’s instrumental output. With the exception of four concertos (none of which are included here), they follow the three-movement plan generally attributed to Vivaldi. But unlike his Dresden colleagues, Fasch turned away from the excessive virtuosity and flamboyance of Vivaldi and embraced the more restrained style of Telemann. The manuscripts of the concertos recorded here are housed in Darmstadt and Dresden, with those featuring multiple soloists reflecting the makeup and taste of the Dresden orchestra, which at the time, was one of the finest in Europe. Fasch was no Bach, so there is nothing esthetically revelatory about the music offered on this recording, but there is much to appreciate in these conservatively paced, nicely colored, and admirable interpretations that are consistently fresh and intelligent. Though there isn’t a great deal of tonal variety, these recordings do offer an elemental beauty of tone, and afford much pleasure, even with the occasional repeated listening. FANFARE: Michael Carter

 

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Bach JS - Suites for Dancing - The Boston Early Music Soloists

 

Release Date: April 20, 1994 Label: Koch Int'l Classics Number of discs: 1 Composer: JS Bach  Performer: Boston Early Music Soloists cd info/ buy

Review:

The Suite is a French form - a collective term for a set (hence "suite") of dances. It would be hard to actually physically dance to these Orchestral Suites, for in fact they are more like abstract musical essays on dance form; perhaps a Baroque equivalent of "symphonic dances". When you listen to them, dance not with your feet, but with your mind. It remains titillatingly unclear why or for whom Bach wrote these Suites for. In Baroque Germany, composers called the form Ouvertüren, a reference to the opening movement. When Jean-Baptiste Lully extracted the overture and selected dance movements from his operas, he created the first Orchestral Suites. And indeed, this "collect and play the best orchestral bits" idea continues today.

 

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