Bach, J S: Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major, BWV1042

Recorded in 1994 this recording of Bach’s violin concertos has lost nothing of its freshness and sparkle. Thomas Zehetmair built, since his Salzburg Festival debut at the age of 16, an impressive international career travelling virtuoso playing with the world’s most famous orchestras conductors. His open and unconventional mind kindled his interest in Historical Early Music Practice, and his interpretations of the baroque repertoire show a deep insight in the style, while never losing his innate musicality and “Spielfreude”.

Zehetmair is joined by the Amsterdam Bach Soloists, an elite group drawn from principals of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, both sharing his interest in early music and his enthusiasm.

The great Johann Sebastian Bach grew up around violin music: his father Johann Ambrosius was an accomplished violinist. This influence is reflected in Sebastian’s compositional output, which contains a large number of solo and ensemble works for the instrument – including the concertos on this recording. The works, written in approximately 1720, are based on Vivaldi’s concerto model from the beginning of the 18th century, and – in the case of the D minor and G minor concertos – are reconstructions of the harpsichord concertos.

Indeed, many of Bach’s concertos for harpsichord were in fact rearrangements of earlier instrumental works, and from the passagework in BWV 1052 and 1056 it is clear that the violin was originally the intended instrument. Together with rich‐sounding dialogue that is a result of the contrast between the intricate solo passages and the slower‐moving accompanying instruments, opportunities for virtuosic display abound in all of the works’ final movements, especially in the energetic Gigue of BWV 1041.

Violinist Thomas Zehetmair studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum and made his festival debut at the Salzburg Festival aged just 16. He has since built up an impressive international career as a soloist, also performing with the Zehetmair Quartet, and is musical director of the Northern Sinfonia (UK) as well as guest conductor of several other major European orchestras. He is joined in the recording by the acclaimed Amsterdam Bach Soloists.

Probably written for the virtuoso Kapelle at Cöthen (BWV1042) or the concerts of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum which the composer often directed himself from the violin, Bach’s three well-known violin concertos are joined here by the splendid Concerto for three violins BWV1064, reconstructed from the surviving version for three harpsichords. A dazzling firework display under the bows of the matchless violinists of the Freiburger Barockorchester.

Freiburger Barockorchester celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012. A glance at the ensemble’s schedule shows a diverse repertoire played at leading concert halls and opera houses, ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary and from Freiburg to the Far East.

The Freiburgers’ artistic credo, however, remains unchanged and involves assigning demanding solo concertos to players from the orchestra’s own ranks. Cultivated, yet at the same time exciting, ensemble playing has thus become the orchestra’s international trademark.

The FBO collaborates with leading artists such as René Jacobs, Andreas Staier and Thomas Quasthoff and enjoys a close cooperation with harmonia mundi France. The artistic success of this musical partnership has been demonstrated in numerous recordings which have won awards including Edison, Gramophone, ECHO Klassik and a Classical Brit Award.

Under the artistic directorship of its two Konzertmeisters Gottfried von der Goltz and Petra Müllejans, and under the baton of selected conductors, the FBO presents around 100 performances per year in a variety of formations from chamber to opera orchestra.

The performers on this recording of popular Bach works are the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra and its principals (as the soloists). According to “Gramophone” the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is the best orchestra in the world. In other words: better quality than this you won’t find.

Highlights from Bach's concerto repertoire, presented with a sure sense of style that combines musical quality with the sound of sensuous strings. Performed by a true "dream team" – Itzhak Perlman, Daniel Barenboim and the English Chamber Orchestra –, who are joined for the famous Double Concerto by Perlman's fellow violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

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.

In addition to recording the Bach Violin Concertos with Henryk Szeryng, Neville Marriner and the Academy also recorded two LPs of arrangements (made by Christopher Hogwood) of harpsichord concertos. These colourful arrangements are for oboe, flute and violin in various combinations. They were issued originally on two Argo LPs to great critical acclaim and are here reissued collectively on a 2CD set for the first time in celebration of the Academy’s 50th anniversary this year, these recordings are reissued as part of a series of reissues on Eloquence. Christopher Hogwood’s illuminating notes are included.

First collective reissue of a much-requested set of concertos on CD

A year-long Eloquence celebration of Marriner and the Academy’s recordings for Decca and Philips.

In November 1981 Herbert von Karajan allowed Tennstedt to deputise for him. Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony was replaced by the Eighth; this would easily have filled the evening on its own, but the planned opening piece, Bach’s E major Violin Concerto, was kept in the programme. Sybill Mahlke commented in the Tagesspiegel that "the opening with Bach was not without charm; the soloist was the orchestra’s leader, Thomas Brandis, whose gently polished playing formed an eloquent musical voice in complete accord with the orchestral accompaniment." In the opinion of Hans-Jörg von Jena (critic of the Volksblatt) the Bruckner performance was "less solemn, less calm, but more colourful than usual". Tennstedt had achieved a paradoxical combination of ecstasy and relaxation. "He makes his mark with great emotional vivacity in crescendos and build-ups, stresses the accents and sforzati; the Wagnerian element in Bruckner, for instance in the Wotan-subject of the Adagio, is revealed afresh." In the Tagesspiegel, Sybill Mahlke commented that Tennstedt had now firmly taken his place among the international élite of conductors: "his quavering beat, never quite guaranteeing total unity in the strings, evinces a full-bodied expressiveness... In many places there are tonal and rhythmical features in this interpretation which are hardly ever heard – sensational interaction of wind and harpaccompanied strings in the Adagio, elemental stressing of underlying rhythm in the Finale, yet also subtly subdued piano passages."

from the booklet note © Helge Grünewald

2010 re-package of the famous recording of Bach's Violin Concertos and the Concerto for Oboe Kennedy made together with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Most of us think of Kennedy as a rebel with a musical cause: a people's violinist, master of Elgar and Ellington, provocative in spirit but musically astute. In both Johann Sebastian Bach and Nigel Kennedy we have free-ranging spirits with huge appetites for their music .

Such is the beauty of Bach's music that Nigel claims he finds something new to explore, to understand everytime he raises his violin and performs Bach's work. Interestingly, he sees many comparisons between the best of jazz compositions and much of Bach's repertoire.

Bach loved the dances of the day: not only those of his native Germany, but also the varied forms that originated in England, France, Italy and Poland. Many of the movements in his instrumental works are in fact musically sophisticated dances and you can hear elements of that keen rhythmic sense throughout the four concertos recorded here.

Nigel Kennedy was the recipient of the "Outstanding Contribution to Classical Music" award from the UK 2000 Classical Brit Awards the same year he recorded this album.

To this day, Kennedy still declines to play by any one set of rules. Over the past decade or so, as well as recording Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Mlynarski and Karlowicz, he has laid his personal instrumental stamp on the songs of Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and Kate Bush; performed the violin intro to Baba O'Riley on stage with the Who; invited Jeff Beck onto the Prom stage with the NKQ; explored traditional klezmer music with the Polish band, Kroke, and dug deep into the roots of modern jazz on the Blue Note Sessions, an album he recorded in NYC in 2006 with legends Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette.

Now dividing his time between homes in London and Krakow, where he lives with his Polish-born wife of 10 years, Agnieszka, Kennedy has never felt more free to pursue his boundary-free musical objectives. "I'm enjoying my music much more than ever as I’m playing exactly what I want - it’s become a deeper experience and enjoyment for me, savouring the moment more, not thinking about the future or the past but thinking about now."

"Across the world thrusting young violinists are two a penny, but there is only Julia Fischer." Geoff Brown, The Times

Julia is one of the fastest rising music stars in the world today. Her first Decca release features some of the most commercial violin repertoire of Bach concertos and will set a new benchmark for Bach recordings.

25-year-old Julia Fischer is already being hailed as one of the truly great violinists of the twenty-first century acclaimed as "Artist of the Year" in the prestigious Classic FM Gramophone Awards 2007 and voted "Best Newcomer" by BBC Music Magazine in 2006. At the age of eleven, Julia Fischer not only carried off the top prize at the 1995 International Yehudi Menuhin Competition (overseen by Lord Menuhin himself) but was awarded a special prize for "Best Bach Solo Work". Her 2006 BBC Music Magazine "Best Newcomer" Award was also given in response to her Bach playing - specifically her complete recording of the solo Sonatas & Partitas, of which the jury said: "There are many recordings of Bach’s works for solo violin but rarely do they reach such breathtaking heights of musicianship as this one.

Johann Sebastian Bach collected six concertos together, which must have been written over a considerable period such is their difference in style, for dedication to the Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg in March 1721. It is thought that either Bach was commissioned or seeking a move from Cöthen to become chapel organist at the princely court, but what is certain he did not get a new job nor even a letter of thanks from the Margrave whose orchestra was too small to perform them. They have become popular classics in their field owing to their being distinctly different from the standard type of concerto grosso. This Bach achieved by the use of a variety of solo combinations and the virtuosity required by these soloists. The concertos for violin also date from his time in Cöthen and have become favourites of soloists and audiences alike through their charm and beauty. Yehudi Menuhin was a leading exponent of the music of Bach throughout his life and here he conducts and plays with his Bath Festival Orchestra in recordings dating from 1958/9.