Customer Reviews

Bach: The Concertos for One and Two Harpsichords

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unlike the usual recordings of Bach's keyboard concertos, the harpsichord is used in this Philips recording, instead of the piano. Listening to this quickly takes the listener back to the 18th century, a quality that a performance on a modern pianoforte lacks. The music is always played with respect to form and proper dynamics, surely what Bach himself would have wanted. Whether austere or light-hearted, these concertos are something all Bach lovers should have. Rarely do we have emotional depth, clear digital sound, and historical accuracy all together on one CD, but here we find it.

I felt Leppard's execution was a bit pedestrian, but being a subjective impression, you may really like it. The music itself, of course, is wonderful.

This recording is shurelly a "pick of the day" for almost all Bach melody lovers. It's light and dancing and although a little old fashioned never disapoints. Raimmond Leppard and the English Chamber Orch. make a wedding cuple and everithyng walks togheter. The tradicional string playing is sharp and warm and we fell back in time while listening. The clear and more dense Philips ADD recording is masterlly remastered and you can buy this set with eyes closed. It's a pity Philips didn't added one more CD with the concerts for 3 and 4 harpischords (this one a great energetic Vivaldi transcription of L'estro Harmônico Op.3 nº10), recorded with the same team. Go listen to it!

If you have listened to a lot of harpsichord concertos, you will have to agree on the one inescapable characteristic of most recordings: the harpsichord is overbearing, imposing itself, with a harsh discordant jangling getting in the way of your enjoying the music. Not so with this recording. The orchestra and the harpsichord strike a perfect balance. I don't know whether this is a merit of the musicians or the recording engineers, but it sounds wonderful. The main message coming out of the recording is not "here I am, the harpsichord," but "this is the wonderful music of JS Bach." Of course, if you absolutely hate the harpsichord and cannot stand its sound at all, this recording is not for you either, because the harpsichord is still there with all its flavor. In that case try buying one of the piano versions, such as Angela Hewitt's marvelous performance, but that one doesn't have the C minor concerto, which is one of the gems in this recording.

I was very disapointed with these cd's. I got them instead of Pinnock just because so often the violin concertos are tacked on to Bach recordings and I already had Grumiaux and was satisfied. But the harpsichord is so thin it is merely an ornament and relativily unimportant. I ended up going back for Pinnock. This might not be a bad background Christmas cd though.