Re:Complete Works of Bach on Hanssler CD

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

  With CD editions of the complete works of Mozart and Beethoven in
our midst, can the complete Bach be far behind? Indeed, it's just around the
corner. A press dinner was held at New York's San Domenico on June 14th,
where Kerstin Hanssler and Maathias Lutzweiler of Hanssler classic
announced the launching of the Edition Bachakademie. A joint venture
between Hanssler classic and the International Bachakademie Stuttgart,
the edition encompasses every piece of music written by Bach, filling more
than 160 CDs. The project will be completed by the year 2000, marking the
250th anniversary of the composer's death. International Bachakademie
Stuttgart's founder and director, conductor Helmuth Rilling recorded all
the church cantatas for Hanssler classic in the '80s, with famous
soloists like Julia Hamri, Peter Schreier, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the
late
Arlene Auger. This cycle serves as the cornerstone for the complete Bach,
as well as other Rilling Bach recordings for the label. New recordings
are under way for the secular cantatas, the passions, the masses, and the
Christmas Oratorio. The choice of artists reflects Rilling's wish to fuse
the most authentic source material with a broad range of performance
practice. Certain keyboard works, for instance, will be recorded on
period instruments, others on the modern Steinway grand. Similarly, the organ
works will utilize historic and contemporary organs alike. Performers
include the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Gachinger Kantorei &
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, violinist Dmitri Sitkovetsky, and cellist Boris
Pergamenschikov. Pianist Evgeni Koroliov, whose piano version of "The Art
of Fugue" is highly acclaimed, will take on the "Goldberg Variations."
Discount subscriptions for the complete set are available beginning this
fall. Hanssler classic is distributed in the US by Collegium Records,
P.O.Box 31366, Omaha, Nebraska 68131 (Phone 402-597-1240, fax 412-597 1254).
One cannot think of a better way for Bach lovers to truly ring in the
millennium.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

>Now isn't this silly?  A complete set of Bach which is just a mish-mash
>of one man's (Rilling's) personal preferences.  Why not make it your
>own preferences?  I am working on my own complete set of Bach works
>already.  Some of it is Harnoncourt, Leonhardt, Karl Richter, Gould,
>Schiff, Gilbert, Kirkpatrick, Landowska, Biggs ... the people that *I*
>choose.  Why do I need Helmuth Rilling to decide one person on
>harpsichord and one person on grand piano?  That is a collection for
>Helmuth Rilling's bookcase, not necessarily mine.  And I can cover
>all the BWV numbers without buying them all from Hanssler.
>
>With all due respect to Rilling, whom I do admire ... folks, do your
>own thinking.
>
>Brent Peterson

You're right, of course, but it is convenient for some collectors who want
a complete Bach collection to acquire these at a *discount*, and then
hopefully start comparing this full set to future individual
recommendations or new releases.  Just to find some of the keyboard pieces
is difficult, where I live.

Your question made me wonder how old JSB himself, were he alive today,
would have collected recordings of his many works?  I have gotten the not
necessarily warranted, and probably silly impression, mainly from reading
opinions and playing through most of his harpsichord output, that he would
be mildly accepting of what musicians have done with his notes and scores.
Or would the idea of a 'permanent' recording as opposed to a transient
performance, change his abiding nature?

In other words, upon hearing a recording would Johann say, "Well, that was
different(!), but atleast other musicians still have the original score,
not everyone is approaching my music with this new fangled style, are
they?"  Or would he say, "My my!  I should have prevented this deviation by
'specifying', but how I did know that musicians would play my music with so
little regard for my style and my times?"  (or would he say,"Hey, this is
great!  I never would have imagined what this Gould character is able to
wring out of my scores!").

Calls for a conclusion without evidence, so I guess we'll never know.

Jerry