Thanks for this. Do you have a recommendation for a recording of the Brandenburg Concertos that is especially good quality sounding? I’m auditioning speakers and I love Bach orchestral works.
Give Bach a try
https://youtu.be/H2bWm9pKYN8
Inspired marriage of art and technology. Karl Richter's recording of 75 Bach cantatas on two blu ray discs in 192/24 sound. As different as snowflakes, no two cantatas are alike. The common thread in these recordings is the tremendous rythmic drive that carries all before it. You can hear the musical greatness even on a $100 player. Better of course with a good DAC despite the digital output of the player being choked down to a 48Khz sampling rate.
75 cantatas is daunting but don't worry there won't be a test afterwards. Just relax and take them at your own chosen speed. You'll be drawn in as so many have before and find yourself compelled to listen to one after the other. My favorite? I won't hedge, it's Wachtet auf Cantata Number 140 featuring the wonderful voice of the tenor Peter Schreier. Richter assembled a fabulous group of solo singers and a choir and orchestra focused solely on Bach. Their sound is lovingly captured on this recording. And it's not all singing. There are instrumentalists every bit as fabulous as their vocalist counterparts. For example revel in the sweet sound of Aurèle Nicolet, onetime first flute for the Berlin Philharmonic.
The packaging is lavish with a booklet having all the lyrics in German accompanied by an English translation. The cantatas are arranged on the disks according to the liturgical calendar which is confusing for us non Lutherans. Luckily there are numerical and alphabetical indexes in the booklet. Connect a screen to the blu ray player to display a list of the cantatas on each disk with numerical and alphabetical descriptions and you can pick a cantata off this list using your player's remote control.
This recording is on the Archiv label which is a division of Deutsche Grammophon. Recording number 4835037 on two blu ray disks. Not to be confused with previous issues on CD and LP. The price works out to a buck a cantata. Musical bargain of this newish century.
Inspired marriage of art and technology. Karl Richter's recording of 75 Bach cantatas on two blu ray discs in 192/24 sound. As different as snowflakes, no two cantatas are alike. The common thread in these recordings is the tremendous rythmic drive that carries all before it. You can hear the musical greatness even on a $100 player. Better of course with a good DAC despite the digital output of the player being choked down to a 48Khz sampling rate.
75 cantatas is daunting but don't worry there won't be a test afterwards. Just relax and take them at your own chosen speed. You'll be drawn in as so many have before and find yourself compelled to listen to one after the other. My favorite? I won't hedge, it's Wachtet auf Cantata Number 140 featuring the wonderful voice of the tenor Peter Schreier. Richter assembled a fabulous group of solo singers and a choir and orchestra focused solely on Bach. Their sound is lovingly captured on this recording. And it's not all singing. There are instrumentalists every bit as fabulous as their vocalist counterparts. For example revel in the sweet sound of Aurèle Nicolet, onetime first flute for the Berlin Philharmonic.
The packaging is lavish with a booklet having all the lyrics in German accompanied by an English translation. The cantatas are arranged on the disks according to the liturgical calendar which is confusing for us non Lutherans. Luckily there are numerical and alphabetical indexes in the booklet. Connect a screen to the blu ray player to display a list of the cantatas on each disk with numerical and alphabetical descriptions and you can pick a cantata off this list using your player's remote control.
This recording is on the Archiv label which is a division of Deutsche Grammophon. Recording number 4835037 on two blu ray disks. Not to be confused with previous issues on CD and LP. The price works out to a buck a cantata. Musical bargain of this newish century.
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Yer welcome. I highly recommend the very same conductor and orchestra for the Brandenburg Concertos: Karl Richter performing with the Munich Bach Orchestra. You can give it a listen on YouTube before you buy. Richter's strong emphatic motions result in a most striking style of conducting. https://youtu.be/Ehbar90jHz8 |
Yes you can get New Old Stock Archiv 4808383
on 26 CD's - pitily at double the price of the Blu Ray edition. The CD's offer lesser sound and lesser convenience. It's a lot more fun to navigate 2 Blu Ray's than 26 CD's. Why not get a $100 Blu Ray player and feed your DAC a luscious diet of 24 bit words? 8 more bits = quantum leap in sonics. |
I love Bach's sacred cantatas. I have all the Richter recordings on vinyl. But they have recently been released as his res downloads on Presto Classical, which sound great to me. Several wonderful interpretations of the cantatas out there. I am particularly enjoying Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan (also available as hi res downloads). |
Oracle462 and jimcrane: Pitily, I find Olafsson bloodless. Compare with Lisitsa: https://youtu.be/lTZoKehkZcI |
I have the vinyl set too as do others on this website. Beats digital hands down. Added bonus: exercise jumping up and down to change the records. I enjoy the Blu Ray edition and the CD edition, but for the ultimate emotional experience it's the vinyl. Belay that. For the ultimate emotional experience you'd need the master tape. An audiophile can dream. |
Is this the correct item? $75.45 on Amazon J.S. Bach: Cantatas [2 Blu-ray Audio]Karl Richter/M�nchener Bach-Chor/M�nchener Bach-Orchest4.9 out of 5 stars15 customer ratings |
It is rare that someone can play Bach on another plane created only by himself for himself...Gould has made it longtime ago... A few come close also after him.. All great artists.... At least this Vikingur Olafsson is one of them.... I like very much his natal island , and the freedom of spirit that animate people who deal with elements of nature and spirits...(They even put bankers in jail) :) This pianist is a genius for me....Thanks.... In particular his timing and synchronization of different voices are phenomenal....BWV 734 and BWV 659 and now BWV 847 oufff are striking.... I had the impression to listen to Bach for the first time really and this speak volume for me, and all these piano pieces are well known however and in spite of that he manage to give them anew totally..... Miracles indeed.... I just discover a marvellous Jazz pianist yesterday Bill Charlap and now this little god.... What a day..... |