IMPORTERS & DISTRIBUTORS
OF CLASSICAL MUSIC FROM
AROUND THE WORLD
LABOR RECORDS |
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Catalogue Number: LAB7025-2 | |
| Price: £13.50 | ||
J.S. BACH KEYBOARD WORKS PERFORMED BY JOÃO CARLOS MARTINS |
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| The first volume in the new release of this historic series contains the unique Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and the first three of Bach's engaging English Suites: in A major, A minor and G minor, respectively. Martins, whose performances of Bach have astonished the musical world on three continents and for at least as many decades, brings his musical depth and keyboard wizardry to four of the great masterpieces of the keyboard repertory. These performances will be followed by another fourteen volumes which constitute this monumental achievement (19 CDs in all). Bach himself was considered the master keyboardist of his age and these performances directly reflect his heritage as an improviser, virtuoso performer and musical thinker. The suites are collections of French, German and British dances reflecting the popular dance rhythms of the day but taken into higher realms of artistic expression by the composer and his interpreter. The Fantasy and Fugue, one of Bach's best-known and most-performed works, is a combination of strict technique, improvisation, keyboard fantasy and musical expressivity. The work was popular during the romantic period and Martins' version follows a famous nineteenth-century edition by the conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow. |
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| "Unconstrained by speculations about what Bach might have wanted, or by concerns about what performers in Bach's time might have made of this music, or what Bach's keyboard instruments might have sounded like, Martins gives us Bach through a modern filter, but a filter applied unconsciously and without artifice. This is 21st century Bach, but it's a natural product of Martins's feelings and experience, not a deliberately manufactured package." – Tom Vernier, CD Review |
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