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Just getting started on Bach. Are there great box sets of Bach's music? Good sets? Thanks, JD II
Follow Ups:
Personally (and this is my musical taste, with no representation of being universal) --
There are only a few Bach works worth hearing more than once. So I agree with jdaniel and andy.
Personally, the only boxes I listen to frequently are the 2-CD (few LP) boxes of the solo cello suites.
Beyond that, I return occasionally to the solo violin sets and even less often to the violin concertos and Brandenbgrg Concertos.
That said, if you actually like harpsichord and cantatas, Bach is your man. Go for it.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
I left out the intimate and larger works because they take a little more work to digest. At least they did for me. But worth it! Transcendant moments abound. If there's one problem with Bach, it's that he's got *too* many great ideas going at the same time.
.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Brandenburg's and Overtures: DHM/ Collegium Aureum or Alia Vox/ Savall Concert of NationsSonatas for Violin and Keyboard: Virgin Classics Holloway
Sonatas for Flute: CRD/ Preston, Pinnock, Savall.
The Secular Cantatas: DHM/ Ameling, Collegium Areum
Musical Offering: Philips/ Marriner ASMF
Organ "Favorites": including Toccata and Fugue and Passacaglia in C: Telarc/Murray. Orchestrated: Telarc/Kunzel Cincinnati Pops.
Violin Concertos: Harmonia Mundi/Manze and Podger.
All the above are relatively short and sweet: beautiful slow movements bracketed by or alternating with spirited fast mov'ts. I've left out many of his very greatest works, as well as his most intimate. Try not to be turned off by the HIP/Anti-HIP extremists who are beginning to jump into the conversation.
My first Bach 2lp set below. : )
Edits: 04/21/17
But, since you brought it up, your advice to "try not to be turned off by the HIP/Anti-HIP extremists" is right on - best thing to do is avoid the HIPsters altogether! ;-)So, in all modesty and meekness, I humbly dare to revise your list in order to (mosty) exclude your HIP selections:
Brandenburg's and Overtures: Karajan/BPO on DG, or, for something more "audiophile" (and less. . . uh. . . expansive!), Benjamin Hudson and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra on Tacet
Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard: That's a tough one, but I'd probably go for the Frank Peter Zimermann recording on a Euroarts DVD
Sonatas for Flute: Larrieu/Puyana (Philips Duo - it's cheap! And besides, Puyana's realizations of those figured bass lines are the bomb!)
The Secular Cantatas: DHM/ Ameling, Collegium A[u]reum - Actually, that one's not bad at all. An alternative version might be the Peter Schreier conducted albums on the Berlin Classics label
Musical Offering: Philips/ Marriner ASMF - Another one that's not bad. But if you get a chance you should try to obtain and hear the old Markevitch EMI recording too (although it's mono only)
Organ "Favorites": including Toccata and Fugue and Passacaglia in C: Telarc/Murray - I haven't heard this one, but I'm sure it's not bad. I seem to have a couple of no longer obtainable DVD-audios of this repertoire.
Organ "Favorites" Orchestrated: Various Stokowski originals (preferably stereo at least!), with more up to date recordings of these same orchestrations by Serebrier on Naxos and Bamert on ChandosViolin Concertos: J-Fi [Julia Fischer] and the ASMF on Decca. You'll regret it if you go for HIP in this repertoire! Cover shown below, along with my own very first Bach recording:
Edits: 04/21/17
I thought my rec's were pretty balanced. They've come off the shelf quite frequently. Honestly, I likely won't go out of my way to listen to modern orchestra Baroque and before performances ever again, (unless it's Camp, like the Stokowski's arrangements). Too lush and monochromatic, even when the ranks are thinned.
I'm glad you're able to find performances you like, though.
I gave it to myself for Fathers Day.
I don't download or stream, unlike others. What I do..
1. Listen to different performances on YouTube
2. If the recording is older, mono, or mp3 quality then just continue to listen on YT
3. If I really like the recording and I want full CD audio quality, I buy the CD off Amazon or eBay.
I'm a musician like many others here, and I'm familiar with a lot of the repertoire so I'm only interested in performances I really like. It may be different if you just want to listen to the music and are not too bothered about the performers, but I can't relate to that.
I do at least 50% of my listening on YouTube, maybe more. All my music is on my computer anyway, so easy to switch back to iTunes.
As you can see by the size of the Rilling set reommended there's an awful lot of Bach.
If the object is to discover Bach's music then for the equivalent cost you could buy more than a year's subscription to e.g. Tidal, explore the Bach repertoire there (including new releases as they are added weekly) and then just buy those that take your fancy.
The problem with huge boxed sets is the uneveness of performances that may exist and that getting the most recommendable performance/recording of a given work will be pot luck. You also will not discover different but equally valid approaches to the music. Furthermore my experience has been that you may end up simply working your way through such large sets as a kind of task without really becoming engaged with the music except here and there.
These forces are consistently good; I have several. If the whole shebang is overwhelming, the individual works are available on single CDs or boxed sets for often very good used prices on Amazon.
Of course, within the individual volumes I've heard, not everything is performed to the same standard, and some singers are better (sometimes WAY better!) than others. But at least it avoids the desiccated minimalist vibrato sound in the string instruments that one hears on the other complete sets. And that pretty much decides it for me.
Because I'm a desiccated fan.
Rilling's choir/orchestra. Sad.
"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
keine text
.
"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
Well, let's see. I like Glenn Gould's Bach. Modern cellists' suites. Organ transcriptions on piano. Orchestral transcriptions of the big pieces.
You decide.
"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
In fact, in my reply to jdaniel above, I agreed with his recommendation of the Ameling/Collegium Aureum (original instruments) recordings of the Bach secular cantatas. So maybe neither of us is quite as predictable as it may have seemed after all! ;-)
Elly Ameling and Collegium Aureum are the last word in today's baroque performance practices. No research can have been more recent or complete.
Neither of us are predictable.
Be safe.
"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
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