Bach, J S: Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV1052 (harpsichord or piano)

Volume 3 in Idis’ ongoing series of Glenn Gould performances, this disc presents Bach’s Concerto No 1 in D minor fortepiano and orchestra BWV 1052 coupled with the Goldberg Variations, both taken from 1958.

Having wowed the critics with their 2011 recording of ‘JS Bach Easter and Ascension Oratorios’ Retrospect Ensemble return to the studio to record Bach’s Harpsichord Concertos.

Director Matthew Halls takes on the role of soloist, having proved both his keyboard virtuosity and affinity with Bach’s harpsichord music in his debut solo recording ‘J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations’ which IRR named ‘Outstanding’.

In 2010 the 35-year-old was announced as The Oregon Bach Festival’s next artistic director, due to his ‘international reputation in the worlds of choral and early music [and] consummate skill as a Bach interpreter.’ He shall assume the role in 2013.

Founded by Matthew Halls, Retrospect Ensemble takes its musicians and audiences on an exciting journey, exploring the repertoire of four centuries and embracing the practices, styles and aesthetics of former ages with renewed vigour and a fresh approach.

Retrospect has performed at concerts across Europe and the Far East and has established an exciting partnership with the Korean National Opera.

Matthew Halls has established himself as one of today’s leading young conductors. A former Artistic Director of The King’s Consort, he has conducted in prominent venues including the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; the Cité de la Musique, Paris; and the Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels.

Following in the footsteps of Miloš and his guitar revival, Deutsche Grammophon presents the charismatic young Israeli musician Avi Avital, champion of yet another beautiful and underestimated stringed instrument – the mandolin.

In 2010, Avi Avital was the first mandolinist to ever receive a Grammy nomination for “Best Instrumental Soloist”.

His debut album for Deutsche Grammophon is devoted to one of his great passions: the music of J.S. Bach. The programme includes Avi’s own mandolin transcriptions of three concertos and a trio sonata by the great Cantor of Leipzig.

These gifts, and his commitment to expanding the expressive possibilities of the mandolin, are why Deutsche Grammophon will place him on the music world’s radar – and what better way to begin, than with Bach?

The Beijing-born guitarist Xuefei Yang has recorded her first album of baroque music, an all-Bach programme anchored by three concertos newly arranged for guitar and string quartet. Bach Concertos is an exciting, innovative album in which she has transcribed for the guitar some of Bach’s familiar violin concertos and other works, hoping to establish these new arrangements as noteworthy repertoire for the guitar and to expand the concerto repertoire for that instrument. Xuefei complements the concertante repertoire with solo guitar arrangements of the Violin Sonata No. 1 BWV 1001, the Prelude in C Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier BWV 846 and the Air on a G string from the Orchestral Suite in D major BWV 1068.

Xuefei, whose international career finds her on the prestigious stages of the Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Philharmonie (Berlin), Konzerthaus (Vienna) and Lincoln Center (New York), as well as to other major concert halls of Europe, North America and Asia, hopes that the new concerto arrangements will become established additions to the repertoire for her instrument. “In the baroque concerto repertoire,” she says, we only really have Vivaldi Concertos, which are very light in nature. These Bach concertos would be a substantial and significant addition to the guitar repertoire and may create new opportunities to bring the instrument to a wider musical audience.”

Explaining the background to her latest recording, Xuefei said, “In Bach’s time, the modern guitar had not yet been invented but a close relative, the lute, was a popular instrument. Bach wrote quite a few works for solo lute and they have become core repertoire for guitarists. When I was playing the wonderful solo violin works by Bach, I wondered whether his concertos would work on the guitar too. So I found the scores and, to my delight, I found that they did!” The three concertos at the heart of the recording are those for Violin in A minor BWV 1041 and E Major BWV 1042 and for Harpsichord in D minor BWV 1052. Xuefei performs them with the Elias String Quartet.

Alexandre Tharaud follows his dazzling album of Scarlatti sonatas with another fusion of modern and historically informed performance styles. Joining him in this new collection of Bach keyboard concertos is the dynamic period-instrument ensemble Les Violons du Roy, under its director Bernard Labadie.

Alexandre Tharaud leads the current generation of pianists who are both reclaiming Baroque keyboard music from harpischordists and integrating historically informed principles into their playing. Exemplifying this fruitful hybrid of modern piano and authentic style is Tharaud’s collaboration in five Bach concertos with one of North America’s most dynamic period-instrument ensembles, the Quebec-based Les Violons du Roy under its director Bernard Labadie.

The programme comprises four concertos for solo keyboard (1052, 1054, 1056, 1058) and also the concerto for four pianos, BWV 1065, in which – thanks to studio technology – Tharaud plays all four solo parts.

A bonus item is an arrangement of an arrangement: Tharaud and Labadie have adapted Bach’s transcription for keyboard of an Adagio written by the Venetian Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747). Tharaud describes it as “ a combination of Bach’s solo version and of Marcello’s version for oboe and orchestra – with me playing the oboe line”.

Bach was born in the same year as Domenico Scarlatti, the subject of Alexandre Tharaud’s last Virgin Classics album. As the French magazine Classica wrote of the Scarlatti collection: “Tharaud breaks with received ideas of Baroque repertoire and its interpretation … Wonderfully inspired in variety of touch, tonal precision, ornamentation and resonance. His concerns are not musicological … Above all he aspires to natural phrasing and a balance in the rhythms … His imperious virtuosity is never teasing or mannered … What matters to him is the evocation of colours, simplicity and sensuality. This is a disc to put you on cloud nine.”

In a similar vein, Diapason found that: “There is no question of imitating players whose instruments have plucked strings. Tharaud plays the piano in all its glory, with unbridled imagination. He inhabits the space unoccupied by harpsichordists and expanded by the resources of his own instrument,” while Classique Today judged the album “The most physical, sensual, epicurean Scarlatti you could imagine. His tonal perfection and extraordinary artistic freedom have given us one of the recordings of the year.” The Sunday Times stated that: “Tharaud relishes the rhythmic and melodic riches here. The playing and musicianship of this young Frenchman are dazzling throughout.”

“crisp, clear-sighted approach to the music, all of which proceeds at a proper tempo and, where appropriate, with a spring in its heels. The slow movements are sensitively expressive…. This is basically how such works would have been heard in their own time, you may feel this is the way it should be…. The strings are 'authentic' and respectful of every element of style….I thoroughly enjoyed this disc and ….the superb recording.” Gramophone