Bach
An entry level Bach collection needs the Well Tempered Clavier, the Art of Fugue, the Brandenberg Concertos, and the Goldberg Variations, imo. Below I include the popular Cello Suites and some others. I’m certainly missing pieces some would prefer make the first cut. I’m again avoiding choral work, which in Bach’s case means no St. Matthew Passion and no Mass in B Minor (this approach is becoming blasphemous), which are two of his greatest works (so if you’re into choir, nttawwt, these are unsurpassed).
During his life Bach was successful, well known but not particularly well respected. At a point late in his career, he became focused on writing fugues which had become unpopular. But he was pursuing something beyond popularity. During this time he finished dead last in a keyboard competition and was derided for being old fashioned despite being the most skillful musician. I doubt it bothered him at all even though he was a competitive musician with many victories notched in his harpsichord.
He credited God and hard work for his success and he worked
and worked and worked at his craft during a reasonably long and productive life -- dead at 65. He was a talented musician, a scholarly composer, deeply spiritual and profoundly intelligent, with a great love for math, and applied all this with a desire to please God before man. The result of that combination is nothing short of astounding.
To paraphrase a conversation with my old virtuoso violin friend, who didn’t consider Bach her favorite, “You can dislike any composer or music but Bach and still like music, but you cannot dislike Bach and still claim you like music. Bach is music.”
“What the heck does that mean?”
“Other composers introduce you to a musical idea and give it lots of friends, happy or sad, brilliant or not, and thus they construct a piece of music. Bach introduces you to a note and tells you everything there is to know about it before introducing you to its parents and how they communicate, then siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and soon you have intimate knowledge of a family of music. This continues note after note and family after family until you have this complete community of music, not as Bach perceived or preferred music, but as music is. From simple to complex, pure music, it’s very laws and boundaries. Anything composed within these laws discovered by Bach is music, anything outside of them is noise.”
“Music has laws?”
“Sure. Bach is to music what Einstein is to physics. He opened the gates and let us play in its universe. The laws aren‘t limiting, they‘re inspiring and liberating. ”
I’m always suspicious of that kind of language, but she’s not the only one who refers to Bach with such praise. Beethoven called him the immortal god of harmony. Mozart, once exposed to Bach’s manuscripts, begged for as much material as he could get, then went on to compose his greatest works. Still it was 40 years after Mozart’s death when Mendelssohn discovered and conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; and then another decade of discovery, nearly 100 years after Bach‘s death before he was included among the truly great composers.
This is a typical quote I found while seeking links for the recommendations:
“His music is intense, rhythmic, and exciting almost beyond measure. His architectural compositions consist of musical building blocks stacked on top of musical building blocks in a dizzying combination of preludes, fugues, and counterpoint, with instrumental voice after voice echoing his thematic genius.”
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2-- Keith Jarrett
Jarrett has done these great justice on harpsichord.
This collection was never meant by Bach to be listened to as a continuous album, and I recommend it in random play on a varied list. This
link explains some tuning facts I never knew about why I prefer harpsichord in some instances. “Well-Tempered”, the title of the piece, refers to a tuning technique rarely found on piano. And Bach was all about that type of tuning here, so piano, is a reduction of the music, imo. From the link:
“If one listens to a Scarlatti sonata on a harpsichord tuned to unequal temperament (well-tempered), and then listens to the same sonata played on a similar instrument tuned to equal temperament (piano), the difference is most pronounced: in equal temperament, both the instrument, and in consequence the music, lose much of their expression and character. The general effect is bland and oily. In unequal temperament, the instrument and music come to life; the music is colourful and exciting. Again, Scarlatti, like Bach, and others, wrote music, which exploited unequal intervals to enhance the effect and expression.”
I used to think the historical correctness of harpsichord conjured up sonic images of feudal Europe thus enhancing my listening experience. Now I understand, in certain instances, the period instrument is the enhancement. Bach’s WTC is regal on harpsichord.
Yet great Bach collections begin with the below piano work.
A State of Wonder: The Complete Goldberg Variations (1955 & 1981) - Glenn Gould
When people discuss the greatest pianists of all time Gould barely gets honorable mention somewhere down a list. Yet, while almost all the great pianists have had a crack at Bach, Gould is always the first name mentioned in his regard -- nearly the only named mentioned. What gives? Gould was a loon, probably suffering from high functioning autism or Asperger’s -- the Rainman of piano. Having him play Liszt is akin to asking Rainman to drive a Ferrari. Having him play Bach, the math, the purity, the complexity, is akin to asking Rainman to have a seat at the blackjack table -- then witnessing the impossible.
Brandenburg Concertos -- Pablo Casals
Read a bio on Casals to save me a little space here, but the above recommendation is like owning a piece of music history. Casals discovered Bach’s Cello Suites in the 20s and was widely regarded as the past century’s greatest cellist. In 1964 at age 88, no longer playing, he conducted the above concertos after handpicking the finest musicians. The result has yet to be bested.
Although his cello playing was eventually bested, imo, by Slava Rostropovich, whose tone and emotion blows away the current crop of celebrated cellists.
Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6 - Mtsislav Rostropovich
I’m grabbing comments from Amazon’s reviews because… well, she knows things:
“I'm a cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra, which Slava conducted for 18 years. It was my privilege to work with him and get to know him as a musician and as a person. Listening to these suites is a lot like talking to Slava--intense, human, warm, committed. No, they aren't like anyone else's playing, but Slava is unique. He has thought deeply about these pieces, knows every note in them, and wanted to pass on his vision of the music to the world. The playing is impeccable, the vision is transcendant. I prize these recordings as homage paid from one master, Slava, to another, Bach.”
As the story goes Bach died literally in the act of writing The Art of Fugue. Thankfully he was on the the 14th contrapunctus, the grande finale, when he shed his mortal coil. The 9 minutes he completed is probably my favorite Bach piece. It is both normal and acceptable for Bach fans to have a half dozen or more versions of the Art of Fugue -- piano, brass, string quartet, chamber orchestra, organ, recorders, harpsichord, period instrument ensembles, whatever. Here’s two I cannot recommend highly enough.
Art of Fugue - Delme Quartet, Robert Simpson
Art of Fugue -- Pittsburgh Symphony Brass
Perhaps the story is true and AoF was written for organ, a wind pipe instrument, because that brass ensemble sounds amazing doing AoF.
Unlike Mozart there’s no symphonies to round out a Bach foundation. The foundation is the above. Also unlike Mozart there’s no great library of opera or youthful doodles to skip in pursuit of a music library. A hundred titles could be listed below and Bach fans would still say what about this or what about that. So add a high quality “best of sonatas and cantatas” or something that doesn’t duplicate much of the above and you’ll find music you already know but didn’t know that you knew.
One last personal favorite getting a lot of play from me recently.
Bach: 4 Suites For Lute - Goran Sollscher
Youtube samples:
Jarrett Well-Tempered on Harpsichord
not sure what happened to the OP, but i've recently discovered a genuine admiration of classical music. i'm wondering if this is just a passing fancy or I could really develop a love for it.other than knowing who the biggies are, i'm pretty much a noob, so any suggestions would be appreciated.
