Bach: Complete Organ Works

Advantages: Beautiful relaxing music. Rich instrumentation. Played with passion.
Disadvantages: Not all instruments are from the period.

...If I was ever asked to select my "desert island discs", top of my list would be Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. (I wonder if there's a category in the ciao café?. . . ) The six Brandenburg concertos, each with their distinct quality and sound requiring a different combination of instruments, are not only a delight to listen to but exemplify the intellectual musical genius of their composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. All six are composed in major keys creating and maintaining a cheerful, vivacious collection. The modulations of key demanded by the baroque conventions are skilfully completed and Bach's predilection for numbers and ornate touches are evident. I could say more but this isn't a musical analysis . . . I am not alone in my high estimation, The Brandenburg concertos are now probably the best loved and most frequently performed works... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Very good price, brilliant quality of performance and recording
Disadvantages: None to note

...There are moments in 'The Art of Fugue' that are much more valuable than just its incredible virtuosity. There are moments that surpass everything else that Bach wrote. I can't think of anything that moves me more deeply than the last fugue, the unfinished fugue. Not just because of all the emotional, sentimental views that we inevitably bring to it, not because we know that he died while half way through a bar. But because that last fugue has a sense of peace, that even for Bach, seems completely overwhelming. It's a still a serious world, deserted and rigid and without colour and without light and without motion. This piece reaches hundreds of years into the future. It creates an impression of an infinitely expanding universe. He literally signs his own name - by using the notes Bb A C B (H) for the theme - to the work he... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Wonderful transcriptions of JS Bach's majestic music; sensitive, tender, vivacious, effortless and fluid playing.
Disadvantages: Nil.

...Balsom has already had her US debut, performing just this January 2006 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (Milwaukee? Not New York City and Carnegie Hall? How did they get to be so lucky in Wisconsin! Methinks Ms Balsom needs a better agent/promoter, no?!). FINAL VERDICT: I give this disc an unqualified, insanely enthusiastic recommendation with all thumbs and great toes up, for all lovers of Bach and/or the trumpet. Total, absolute must-have recording. [For more complete background info on Alison Balsom, please scroll down the page to the BBC Radio 3 article.] CD DETAILS: BACH: WORKS FOR TRUMPET Alison Balsom EMI Classics 5 58047 2 (CD) / 5 58047 5 Concerto in D Major (after Vivaldi) BWV 972: 1 Allegro 2 Adagio 3 Allegro Assai 4 Sarabande (from Cello Suite No.2 BWV 1008) 5 Gigue (from Cello Suite No.2 BWV 1008) 6 Aria... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful