Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer, organist and keyboard player of the late Baroque, born in Eisenach. He held church and court posts in central Germany, ending as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and he is best known for keyboard, organ, orchestral and sacred works such as the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier and the St Matthew Passion. Bach was organist in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and served at the Weimar court before becoming Kapellmeister at Köthen in 1717, where he wrote the Brandenburg Concertos.
Switched-On Bach (LP)
condition (record/cover): VG (some surface noise) / VG (general wear)
Released October 1968. Ten Bach pieces, each recorded note-by-note on an eight-track machine because the Moog modular was monophonic. Roughly 1,100 working hours of overdubbing. Carlos and Benjamin Folkman played the parts; Rachel Elkind produced from the West 88th Street brownstone studio she shared with Carlos.
The album reached Billboard 200 #10, topped the Classical chart from 1969 to 1972, sold a million by 1974, went p…
Piano Duet
Before the epigones take over the stage we are given a chance to hear out Bach himself: the unfinished four-voice Contrapunctus XIV from the Art of the Fugue marks the starting point of Andreas Grau's and Götz Schumacher's remarkable exploration of the Bach cosmos. In the Berlin autograph of the Contrapunctus XIV the place where the score breaks off is marked by an inscription: "At the point where the name BACH is introduced in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died." Even though fr…
Wolke und Mond
Bach's three gamba sonatas BWV 1027-1029, played on cello and accordion, alternating with Adriana Hölszky's Wolke und Mond, Miserere and Nouns to Nouns II, by Julius Berger and Stefan Hussong. Recorded 2001 and 2003.
Das Wohltemperierte Clavier
András Schiff plays both books of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846-893) on piano, recorded in August 2011 at the Auditorio RSI, Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher. Four CDs, ECM New Series 2270-73, 2012.
Clavichord
András Schiff plays Bach's Capriccio BWV 992, Inventions and Sinfonias, Four Duets, Ricercar à 3 and Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue on a 2003 Joris Potvlieghe copy of a 1743 Specken clavichord. Recorded July 2018 at the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn; produced by Manfred Eicher.
Six Suites for Viola Solo, BWV 1007-1012
Kim Kashkashian plays Bach’s six cello suites BWV 1007-1012 on viola, the Sixth on a five-string viola by Francesco Bissolotti. Recorded November 2016 and February 2017 at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York.
Sei Solo - The Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo
Thomas Zehetmair’s second recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin BWV 1001-1006, on two Baroque violins with gut strings. Recorded August 2016 at Propstei St. Gerold, Vorarlberg; released 2019.
Suiten für Violoncello
Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga’s second recording of Bach’s six cello suites BWV 1007-1012, played with gut strings and a Baroque bow. Recorded February 2014 at the Hans Huber-Saal, Basel; released 2017.
Six Sonatas for Violin and Piano
Michelle Makarski (violin) and Keith Jarrett (piano) in Bach's six sonatas for violin and keyboard, BWV 1014-1019. Recorded November 2010 at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York.
Six Partitas
András Schiff plays Bach's six keyboard Partitas, BWV 825-830, on two CDs, in his own order (5, 3, 1, 2, 4, 6). Recorded live on 21 September 2007 at the Historischer Reitstadel, Neumarkt; produced by Manfred Eicher.
The Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo
Bach's complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, BWV 1001-1006, played by Gidon Kremer on two CDs. Partitas recorded September 2001 at the Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus, Lockenhaus; sonatas recorded March 2002 in Riga.
Das Wohltemperierte Klavier I
Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (24 preludes and fugues, BWV 846-869) played by Austrian pianist Till Fellner on two CDs, his ECM debut. Recorded September-October 2002 at the Jugendstiltheater, Vienna; produced by Manfred Eicher.
Toshio Hosokawa / J.S. Bach / Isang Yun
Thomas Demenga (cello) plays Bach's Cello Suites Nos. 5 and 6 between chamber works by Toshio Hosokawa and Isang Yun, with Teodoro Anzellotti, Asako Urushihara, Hansheinz Schneeberger, Thomas Larcher, Aurèle Nicolet and Heinz Holliger. Recorded 1985-2000.
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I - Concert Recording
Keith Jarrett plays Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book I (BWV 846-869) in concert at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, New York, on 7 March 1987. Archival recording first released in 2019.
Bach / Abel / Hume
Anja Lechner's first solo cello album for ECM New Series: Bach's Cello Suites Nos. 1 and 2 framed by viola da gamba pieces by Tobias Hume and Carl Friedrich Abel, played with a Baroque bow. Recorded May 2023, Himmelfahrtskirche Sendling, Munich.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Paul Giger, Marie-Louise Dähler, Pudi Lehmann, Franz Vitzthum, Carmina Quartet
ars moriendiPaul Giger (violin, violino d'amore) with Marie-Louise Dähler, Pudi Lehmann, Franz Vitzthum and the Carmina Quartett in his own pieces and Bach, much of it from a film score on Giovanni Segantini. Recorded January 2015 in Maloja, with Guggisberglied from 2021.
Three Or One
Bach organ chorale preludes, cantata arias and a sinfonia transcribed by Fred Thomas for piano trio and solo piano, played by Thomas with Aisha Orazbayeva (violin) and Lucy Railton (cello); recorded 2012 and 2018 at the University of Huddersfield.
Prism V - Beethoven, Webern, Bach
Fifth and final volume of the Danish String Quartet's Prism series: Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16 Op. 135, Webern's String Quartet (1905), Bach's chorale prelude BWV 668 and Contrapunctus 14. Recorded June 2021 at the Festsal KFUM/KFUK, Copenhagen; produced by Manfred Eicher.
Prism IV - Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bach
Fourth volume of the Danish String Quartet's Prism series: Bach's Fugue in G minor BWV 861 (arr. Förster), Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 Op. 132 and Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 2 Op. 13. Recorded 2018-2019 at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt; produced by Manfred Eicher.
Prism III - Beethoven, Bartók, Bach
Third volume of the Danish String Quartet's Prism series: Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 Op. 131, Bartók's String Quartet No. 1 and Bach's Fugue BWV 849 (arr. Förster). Recorded November 2017 at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt; produced by Manfred Eicher.
Prism II - Beethoven, Schnittke, Bach
Bach's Fugue in B minor BWV 869 (arr. Förster), Schnittke's String Quartet No. 3 and Beethoven's Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge as finale, played by the Danish String Quartet; recorded May 2017 at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt, produced by Manfred Eicher.
Prism I - Beethoven, Shostakovich, Bach
Bach's Fugue BWV 876 in Mozart's arrangement, Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 15 and Beethoven's Op. 127, played by the Danish String Quartet; recorded November 2016 at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt, produced by Manfred Eicher. First volume of the Prism series.
Bach, Busoni, Beethoven
Yuuko Shiokawa (violin) and András Schiff (piano) play sonatas by Bach (BWV 1016), Busoni (No. 2, Op. 36a) and Beethoven (No. 10, Op. 96); recorded in December 2016 at the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano.
Canto Oscuro
Russian pianist Anna Gourari's ECM debut: Bach chorale preludes, the Chaconne and a prelude in transcriptions by Busoni and Siloti, with Gubaidulina's Chaconne and Hindemith's Suite 1922, recorded in May 2011 at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt.
Britten / Bach / Ligeti
Solo cello recital by Miklós Perényi: Britten's Third Suite op. 87, Bach's Suite No. 6 BWV 1012 and Ligeti's Sonata. Recorded November 2009 at the RSI Auditorio in Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher.
Inventionen und Sinfonien / Französische Suite V
Till Fellner plays Bach's two-part Inventions, three-part Sinfonias and French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816, on piano; recorded in July 2007 at the Mozartsaal, Wiener Konzerthaus, and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Towards Silence
Swiss violinist Paul Giger (violin, violino d'amore) and harpsichordist Marie-Louise Dähler alternate Bach's Sonata BWV 1018 and the Goldberg Aria with their own pieces and improvisations. Recorded October 2006 at Propstei St. Gerold.
Morimur
Bach's Partita in D minor BWV 1004 played by Christoph Poppen on baroque violin, interleaved with chorales sung by The Hilliard Ensemble after Helga Thoene's analysis; recorded September 2000 at Propstei St. Gerold, Austria.
Játékok
György and Márta Kurtág play 30 pieces from his piano cycle Játékok (Games) and four of his Bach transcriptions, for two and four hands. Recorded July 1996 in the Mozart-Saal, Wiener Konzerthaus, produced by Manfred Eicher.
J.S. Bach / B.A. Zimmermann
Thomas Demenga's fourth ECM New Series pairing of Bach and the 20th century: Bach's Cello Suite No. 2, BWV 1008, with Bernd Alois Zimmermann's solo sonatas for violin (Thomas Zehetmair), viola (Christoph Schiller) and cello, recorded in 1995 in Sandhausen.
In memoriam Haydée / Játékok - Games and Transcriptions for piano solo and four hands
Concert film by Isabelle Soulard: Márta and György Kurtág play pieces from Játékok and Kurtág's Bach transcriptions for piano four hands, Cité de la musique, Paris, 22 September 2012, in memory of Haydée Charbagi.