The B Minor is magnificent. I don't know Klemperer's St. Matthews, 
but I've liked a lot of his performances in the past and disliked a 
few. But at less than a dollar a cd I'll take the lot, not for 
definitive performances (what's definitive? when I was a kid I loved 
the Scherchen readings of the cantatas, now can't stand them. ) but 
in many cases the only, and quite repectable or better. Not that I'm 
about to get rid of my Szigeti or Grumiaux violin solos etc.

What's authenticity? How about Bach on the piano? The Klemperer B 
Minor has no such departures. But as I said, most of the performances 
are on period instruments.

The reviews of the set (both the amateurs at Amazon and the 
professionals) have been pretty much in line with mine--I did some 
research before I plunked down the cash. There's also a complete 
Beethoven issued by the same company (Brilliant Classics) which I 
wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, based on what I've read. Anyway, 
I have the old Beethoven complete from Angel on vinyl.

The forces on the St Matthews, most of whom are new to me: Stephen 
Cleobury, conducyting the Brandenburg Consort, the choirs of Kings 
and Jesus Colleges, and Rogers Covey-Crump, Michael George, Emma 
Kirkby, Michael Chance, Martyn Hill, and David Thomas.

This is really a no-brainer.

Joanna: I spent a Sunday in a small city in the mountains of 
Guatemala with an enormous early 16th century church. It was jammed. 
The service was essentially all day, and the sermon was heavy on the 
fire and brimstone. The smaller children played quietly on the floor, 
around their parents'  feet or in the aisles. I'd imagine that it was 
somewhat the same.

Bach's boys usually spoke well of him, even Johann Christian, who 
thought of his music as old fogey-ish. Most of Bach senior's music 
fell into disuse after Bach's death, as it had mostly been when he 
was alive except when he performed or conducted it himself. But it 
never disappeared completely. The Well-Tempered Clavier  was a 
standard teaching material, Beethoven, for instance, mastering it as 
a child and adolescent. And in Vienna in the 1770s and 80s Bach was 
performed at weekly soirees at the home of the powerful diplomat 
Gottfried van Sweeten, attendance mandatory for ambitious musicians. 
 From which we get the Mozart transpositions and his own Adagio and 
Fugue, and the baroque influence in late Haydn choral music. And of 
course by the 1820s the revival was well underway--listen to early Mendelssohn.

A propos those washtubs, do we know if Anna Magdalena had a scullery? 
Most middle class families did.

Mark

At 05:51 PM 8/19/2007, you wrote:
>Like Joanna, I'd be a bit chary of a gang purchase like this. Ugh to
>Klemperer -- I have his reading of the opening to St Matthew somewhere and
>it is very dignified, and quite powerful, but hopelessly distant from any
>sense of authenticity.
>
>I managed to get a complete organ works done by Michel Chapuis, who's a
>contemporary of Gustav Leonhardt. Quite old recordings unfortunately (cars
>in the background sometimes); I see that new recordings, made by John Scott
>Whiteley on appropriate instruments, is just out on DVD. We've seen some of
>them on TV here in the UK, and they've been quite absorbing.
>
>My favourite Bach joke, said of Glenn Gould: his Bach is worse than his
>Bitehoven.
>
>P
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > Behalf Of Mark Weiss
> > Sent: 19 August 2007 20:30
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Bach
> >
> > Yesterday the Bach Edition--Complete Works, which I had ordered from
> > Amazon for $125 (86 euros on French Amazon), arrived. It's 155 CDs. I
> > immediately went to pieces I know well--the Toccatta and Fuge in D
> > Minor for organ (very fine), Wachet Auf (superb interpretation,
> > soloists adequate), the Goldberg Variations excellent), the
> > 6th  Cello Suite (respectable and a bit more), the first solo violin
> > partita (likewise), the B Minor Mass. I also dipped my toe into the
> > Saint Matthew's Passion--difficult to turn that one off, but not
> > enough time. It seemed very good indeed. Most of the work is on
> > period instruments, but there's no preciosity. The Goldbergs on
> > harpsichord produce nuances that the piano can't. Interesting
> > mistake--the B Minor is listed on the sleeve as by a small, unknown
> > to me ensemble, but it's in fact Klemoperer and the Philharmonia with
> > Baker and Gedda, and I'm not complaining.
> >
> > All of these I alreasdy own performances off, sometimes several. The
> > real fun is going to be all those pieces I've never heard. Of the
> > cantatas, for instance, I know maybe 20.
> >
> > The first citizen reviewer at the Amazon site is Kamau Brathwaite, by the
>way.
> >
> > There's a CD at the end of bio, notes, and the libretti (vo, french
> > and english) of all the vocal works.
> >
> > I can't think of a better way to spend $125. Bach's was one of the
> > great minds --up there with Shakespeare, Michelangelo,Newton, and
> > maybe Montaigne and not a whole lot of others. What the hell could
> > the burgers of Leipzig do with the rest of Sunday after leaving
> > church? Art, sex or ice cream it had to be. Me, after  those hours of
> > listening I hiked through my forest on one of the summer's loveliest days.
> >
> > Mark