Bach, J S: Musical Offering, BWV1079: Ricercar a 6

Moving from the harpsichord to the clavichord or the organ was probably easy enough for Johann Sebastian Bach. The source of the sound didn’t matter, because for the master of Leipzig, what counted were thought and intellect: the form, tonality and melodic contours ere more important than the instrument itself. And indeed, through this work of musical thought, Bach used different keyboards, prefiguring the instruments to come: the piano as a synthesis of the harpsichord, the organ and the clavichord.

Bach was aware of exchanges between the different European schools, which allowed musicians to copy, transcribe and adapt the work of contemporaries. Bach did this with his own scores, as well as those of his colleagues. Over the centuries, Busoni, Siloti, Kempff and Kurtàg amongst other have transformed the magic of the organ, orchestra and choruses of the cantatas to the piano.

And now, Ensemble Contraste presents its own vision of the Cantor: a school of freedom that never betrays his conception and allows the beauty, rigorous construction and triumphant polyphonies to shine through.

"La Dolce Volta, a new French classical music label whose outstanding production values include big, bold sound and cerebral liner notes laid out in cerebral, hip typography" Strings

This disc includes transcriptions by W. Braunfels, C. Tausig, Vaughan Williams, I. Iljin, C. Lucas, S. W. Didenko, I. Philipp, A. Malheiro Prado, and A. Brieskier performed by German pianist Angelika Nebel and includes some premiere recordings.

The former German Democratic Republic took its role as guardian of the important German cultural traditions, especially in music, very seriously, and this can clearly be seen not only in the magnificent archives of music from central Germany and the court of Frederick the Great, but also in collections of early instruments. This 2-CD set features music performed on keyboards produced by some of the greatest instrument makers of their time, including

Gottfried Silbermann, Heinrich Harrass and Johann Jacob Donat. They are preserved in collections at the Händel-Haus at Halle/Saale, and in music instrument museums at Leipzig, Markneukirchen and Potsdam Sanssouci.

Jan Michiels has dedicated this collection to the memory of his music history professor Christiaan De Lannoy: “He was one of my greatest teachers in fathoming the chess game of our personal and musical histories. This “Musical Offering” is thus a modest word of thanks in the language of “the ineffable”.”

This new release in this series includes arrangements by György Kurtág for piano, four hands. The Evgeni Koroliov and Ljupka Hadigeorgieva founded their duo in 1976. Their concerts, both solo, as a duo and as chamber musicians have taken them throughout Europe and to the USA and Canada.

Janne Rättyä is an international soloist and has been professor for Classical Accordian Studies at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria since 2003. He writes “….one should take advantage and experiment with the still undiscovered possibilities the accordion has to offer with regard to old music. This I feel, would be too interesting an adventure to pass by!”

The first ATMA recording by l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec (Quebec City Symphony Orchestra) of transcriptions of music by Debussy was a huge success and now ATMA present transcriptions of music by J S Bach. Conductor Yoav Talmi has not necessarily chosen the transcriptions you might expect. Of course we have Stokowski’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor but there are also transcriptions by William Walton, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and even Anton Webern and Ottorino Respighi.