Customer Reviews

Bach: Sonatas

5 star:		(4)
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If you appreciate Bach or recorder music, this album is a must for you. Keith Jarrett and Michala Petri have put together a series of performances that sound so "right " that you cannot imagine them played otherwise.

The recorder playing, especially, is intriguing. Michala produces a sound similar to a flute, but a little darker and more mellow. Recorder, especially for Baroque music, is highly underrated. This is a great addition to any Baroque collection.

A superb technical effort combined with an interpretation that lets the spirit of the music shine through. All in all, I rate this CD in the top 5% of my collection.

Often I will purchase a CD based on its cover. A quirk of mine, but I find that for me the packaging is often a reflection of the musical value within. On the cover of this album you see Keith and Michala in mysterious bluish tones - looking genuinely pleased to be here, and perhaps a little amused. They are accompanied by a black cat. Something sort of magic about that. I know not a whit about either harpsicord or recorder playing, but as a musician, I assure you that the playing is superbly colored- sometimes sad, at other times lyrical and truly soaring. There is pathos, passion and triumph here. Petri and Jarrett are two great players, but this kind of interplay does not happen in an afternoon. This recording is the fruit of some intense effort. The evidence: unlike many Bach readings, the phrasing is always intelligent, finely drawn. There is a subltle interplay between the rythms of these virtuoso players, like speed skaters that catapult each other along on the way, handing off rythm and speed in a decidedly cooperative, delicate and intimate manner. A highly dynamic reading of the Bach Sonatas. I highly recommend this CD to any and all listeners. If you don't know the Sonatas, this could be well be your best introduction.

I have owned this CD for a very long time, and it remains one of the most played CDs in my collection of any sort (and there are many sorts!). Whenever I need Bach to clear my head this is almost inevitably the CD I go for. I am no musicologist but I own well over 100 Bach CDs. So when I say this is my most played, I don't say it lightly. The playing has a playful enjoyment missing in the Galway (which I also own). The recorder brings a resonance and earthiness missing in the flute recordings. Petri also chooses very slightly slower speeds than Galway, which I think are just right. Trust me, you will absolutely love this if you love Bach (maybe even if you don't)! Especially if you love Bach at play. I look forward to many more years of of wild abandon in the blissful tone of Petri's recorder!

The left hand of Jarrett plays Basso Continuo, and the right hand plays the part of melody. And the good sense of Jarrett can be felt by co-starring with virtuoso of "recorder" Michala Petri through BWV 1030 - 1035, that are originally the works for transverse flute. As a result, these works are more delicately expressible. Virtuosity of Michala Petri also worth listening to. By the way, it hited when I had a jazz lover listen to this CD. He said that "Prest" of BWV 1030 was driving. And he came to buy this CD.
Recorded in 1992.