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Reviews

Mar 8, 2025

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Label
Aparté
Catalog no
none
Released
2025

This past year I allowed myself to try a number of recordings of Bach on the piano.

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Bach: The Art of Fugue Albert Cano Smit

Mar 4, 2025

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Released
2025
Length
53:57

At the last Boston Early Music Festival, I sat in a small church to hear a keyboard recital that started with the clavichord.

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Bach – Works for Clavichord Suter

Mar 3, 2025

Composers
Antonio Vivaldi
Label
cpo
Catalog no
555 379-2
Released
2025

I first encountered Federico Guglielmo through his group’s traversal of Giuseppe Tartini’s violin concertos.

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Vivaldi: Violin concertos for Pisendel

Mar 2, 2025

Composers
Marin Marais

The year is 1723, and on deck are three pieces by Marin Marais, the by now famous French gamba performer.

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The Scale Knitters – Music by Marais

Mar 1, 2025

Composers
Orlando Gibbons
Label
Resonus Classics
Catalog no
RES10355
Released
2025

Orlando Gibbons stands as a bridge between Renaissance and Baroque music, composing vocal works, consort pieces, and, as featured on this…

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Stephen Farr records keyboard works by Gibbons

Feb 16, 2025

Composers
Johann Sebastian BachJohannes Brahms
Label
Linn
Catalog no
CKD 752
Released
2025

When I saw Bach and Busoni attached to this recording, I assumed it would include the Bach Chaconne arranged by Ferruccio Busoni, a piece…

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Inmost Heart: Bach, Brahms, Busoni, Reger

Feb 9, 2025

Ensemble Piccante, led by soloist Isaac Makhdoomi, features three concertos and a vocal aria (played by recorder) from the circle of Frederick the Great. The composers represented include Quantz, Benda, C.P.E. Bach, and Carl Heinrich Graun, no surprises!

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Recorder Concertos from Sanssouci

Feb 9, 2025

Label
Chaconne
Catalog no
CHAN 0828
Released
2023
Length
1:06:00

On Chandos’s Early Music label, in January of 2023 they released an album featuring baroque trumpet.

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Altissima: Works for Baroque Trumpet

Feb 8, 2025

Composers
Philip Glass
Label
Third Coast Percussion (self-released)
Catalog no
none
Released
2025

Third Coast Percussion has released this January a recording of the 1993-99 work by Philip Glass, envisioned as part of a ballet dance…

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Aguas da Amazonia Third Coast Percussion

Feb 8, 2025

Composers
Georg Österreich

The origin of the music on this album, and how it was put together for this recording, is an interesting pair of stories.

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Georg Österrich’s Resurrected Treasures

Feb 2, 2025

Composers
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Released
2025
Length
1:05:58

My apologies for thinking this album’s cover depicted Lord Voldemort on first sight; it instead is the conductor and soloist Ariel…

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C.P.E. Bach Flute Concertos Ariel Zuckermann

Feb 2, 2025

Composers
Alexander Scriabin
Label
Etcetera Records
Catalog no
KTC 1815
Released
2024

The music of Александр Скрябин is not in regular rotation around here, but just as you might go on a short health kick eating kale salads…

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Scriabin Complete Piano Sonatas Cernadas

Jan 27, 2025

Label
Mirare
Catalog no
MIR760
Released
2025
Length
1:08:13

One of the things I admired about this new recording on first glance was the line-up of music, pitting now-familiar Vivaldi concertos next…

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Concerti per violoncello Hanna Salzenstein

Jan 20, 2025

When auditioning this new release featuring Francesco Corti on harpsichord, I was hoping the entire album was as impressive as the first track I’d chosen.

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The Age of Extremes – Francesco Corti

Jan 19, 2025

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Label
Accent
Catalog no
ACC 24406
Released
2025

The title of this album gave me a little bit of reservation. While I was in college I started taking some methods classes; these were…

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Bach’s Oboe Xenia Löffler

Jan 18, 2025

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

The story behind Bach’s Musical Offering shouldn’t need a recount here, as fascinating a story it is.

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Bach’s Musical Offering Cindy Castillo

Jan 11, 2025

Among Bach’s surviving works, which ones seem to suggest virtuoso flair? When I consider Bach’s legacy, he wrote some conservative music, right? Organ chorales, religious works such as the B minor Mass and the cantatas…

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Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue

Jan 4, 2025

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Released
2024
Length
52:22

My original exposure to double-harpsichord music was an oft-referenced album by Skip Sempé and Olivier Fortin, which I believe was titled…

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Bach sous Les Tilleuls Barrucand & Clément

Jan 1, 2025

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Released
2024
Length
3:00:53

For the new year, I wanted to highlight a recently released version of Bach's cello suites.

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Bach Cello Suites Sollima

Dec 31, 2024

I finally got the chance to take in the interesting album of Dutch music, played upon Dutch instruments from Postscript, an HIP ensemble featuring two flutes, cello, and harpsichord.

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à Amsterdam Postscript

Dec 28, 2024

Composers
Marin Marais
Label
Harmonia Mundi
Catalog no
HMM 905356
Released
2024

I remember seeing Tous les matins du monde in college, likely the first French language film I’d seen.

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Marais – Tombeau pour Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe

Dec 27, 2024

Composers
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I found myself, in the middle of my high school experience one summer, outside the influence of my own parents and a guest at my best…

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Mozart’s Requiem Pygmalion

Dec 22, 2024

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach’s trio sonatas, BWV 525-530, are believed to have been a training exercise for his favorite son, W.F.

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Bach’s Trio Sonatas for Organ Neu

Dec 15, 2024

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach’s works for lute—an instrument that was perhaps eclipsed by the guitar after the baroque period—I learned are far less a tidy…

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Pièces pour le lut par JS Bach Duncumb

Dec 14, 2024

Composers
Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli
Label
Harmonia Mundi
Catalog no
HMU 907241
Released
1999

Just as I credit Andrew Manze (as part of Romanesca) for introducing me to Heinrich Biber, I credit him and his former musical partner…

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Pandolfi: Complete Violin Sonatas

Dec 7, 2024

Label
Leiter
Catalog no
LTR046
Released
2024
Length
1:23:46

Recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris and one and a half years after releasing his magnum opus ‘Music For Animals’ — described by…

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Paris Nils Frahm

Nov 30, 2024

Label
Alpha Classics
Catalog no
none
Released
2024
Length
1:07:45

This album featuring the core group of Sophie de Bardonnèche (violin), Lucile Boulanger (gamba), and Justin Taylor (harpsichord) feature…

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Destinées Bardonnèche

Nov 29, 2024

Jan Nigges and Alexander von Heißen have recorded three short releases (Volumes I-III) of music for recorder and keyboard under the title L’Hommage: Music for the Sun King.

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L’Hommage – Volumes I-III

Nov 26, 2024

Composers
Johann Sebastian BachGeorge Frideric Handel
Label
Alpha Classics
Catalog no
ALPHA 370
Released
2017

These two pieces are not always presented together, as they are here on this 2017 release from Alpha featuring Vox Luminis, however they…

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Bach: Magnificat; Handel: Dixit Dominus

Nov 23, 2024

Label
Berlin Classics
Catalog no
0303407BC
Released
2024
Length
1:16:47

Max Volbers (recorders) pairs with harpsichordist Alexander von Heißen to record an album of baroque pieces for recorder and basso continuo.

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Foreign Masters Volbers & van Heißen

Nov 21, 2024

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Label
Evidence
Catalog no
EVCD074
Released
2021

When I reviewed this album back in January, I should have paired it with this release from Aya Hamada.

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Bach: Clavier-Übung II, Chaconne Aya Hamada

Nov 17, 2024

Composers
Johan Helmich Roman

This album is now five years old, but it’s new to me, and I thought the music itself was worth more exposure.

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Roman – Golovinmusiken

Nov 16, 2024

Composers
Jan Dismas Tůma

My good friend has been a real fan of Roman Válek’s recordings, appearing upon the Supraphon label from the Czech Republic.

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Tuma: Vesperæ

Nov 16, 2024

Composers
Georg Philipp Telemann

It should come to pass that I would review an effort by the Hamburg-based ensemble I Zefirelli, who won the WDR3 Special Prize at the…

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Telemann in the Tavern Ensemble I Zefirelli

Nov 16, 2024

Label
Ricercar
Catalog no
B 1
Released
2024
Length
1:01:30

The newest album from Bor Zuljan, lutenist and on this record, vocalist, explores the art of “improvisation and wonder” in humanist Italy.

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Orpheus’ Lute Bor Zuljan

Nov 11, 2024

Composers
George Frideric Handel
Label
Linn
Catalog no
CKD 747
Released
2024

Dunedin Consort, dir. John Butt, records cantatas by G. F. Handel during his Roman period with soprano Nardus Williams on Linn The liner…

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Handel in Rome: A recital with Nardus Williams

Nov 10, 2024

I know I covered this album as part of my Bachcast series podcast, but I was surprised I had never reviewed this album. It was released by Koopman on Challenge Classics/Antoine Marchand in December 2012. I can’t believe I’ve lived with this album for so long!

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Bach: The Six Partitas Koopman

Nov 10, 2024

Released
2021
Length
1:18:33

This generous recital (79 minutes) from Jean Rondeau was released in the spring of 2021 on Erato.

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Melancholy Grace Jean Rondeau

Nov 9, 2024

On Harmonia Mundi comes a new album from Ensemble Les Surprises highlighting the family connections in Bach’s time around music making, focusing on the impacts of the Bach family and the Silbermann family.

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The Experts: Music as a Family Affair

Nov 9, 2024

This album warmed my heart as I am lovingly realizing I am falling for another composer other than Biber. Yes. Henry Purcell is represented here in the opening with his Curtain Tune on a Ground from his Timon of Athens.

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No Strings Attached

Nov 9, 2024

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach

The booklet of this new release from Tristano-Schlimé communicates the artist's desire, he writes, to record all of Bach’s keyboard music.

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The Future of Bach’s Partitas Francesco Tristano

Nov 3, 2024

Composers
Domenico Gallo

There’s a lot of novelty in this recording, covering two CDs, by the ensemble Concerto Melante performing music by the Venetian baroque…

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Domenico Gallo – 12 Sonate Melante

Oct 27, 2024

Composers
Joseph Haydn

Haydn’s symphonies didn’t speak to me as directly, I found, as much as baroque literature did; I’d have taken, growing up, a Corelli…

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Two New Haydn Releases

Oct 26, 2024

Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
Label
Arcana
Catalog no
A567
Released
2024

I’m writing this review on 26 October 2024, the birthday, incidentally, of a friend of mine from high school, one admired for his intellect…

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Bach: Mass in B minor La Cetra Basel

Oct 25, 2024

This is not the first time Johannes Pramsohler and his Ensemble Diderot have devoted a disc to vocal music; however in this album featuring arias for bass, starring Nahuel Di Pierro, the forces of the ensemble have blossomed to a full-sized orchestra…

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Arias for Bass Nahuel Di Pierro & Ensemble Diderot

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