The Bach Players: Recordings

News

After the release in 2008 of our first CD, Bach arranging and arranged, the second CD in this series, Every one a chaconne, is now also available.

The CDs can be bought online for £15 (post & packing free in the UK) direct from the publisher, Hyphen Press Music.

They are also available from CD Baby, as digital downloads and as physical copies.

We are also selling them at our concerts: the price is then £12.

Nicolette Moonen talks about the background to the first recording here: Bach arranging and arranged: an interview.

The third CD in this series, Nun komm!, was recorded in November 2009 and will be released in 2010.

Every one a chaconne

We centre this programme on the chaconne: you will hear how Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach join hands in this much-loved dance form of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Of the few works of Philipp Heinrich Erlebach that survive, we perform a suite that concludes with a chaconne. The two Bach cantatas are contrasting: BWV 150 is said to be Bach’s earliest surviving cantata, BWV 78 was composed in Leipzig at the height of his career.

Listen to these sample tracks:

Ciaccona ‘Meine Tage in dem Leide’ (from J.S. Bach’s Cantata ‘Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich’, BWV 150)

Part of the chaconne from Philipp Heinrich Erlebach’s Ouverture V

For more details and to buy copies, click here.

Bach arranging and arranged

What happens when great composers arrange each other’s works? J.S. Bach gave Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater a new text and a new viola part, making a fresh piece that speaks both of Germany and Italy. Our performance features singers Rachel Elliott and Sally Bruce-Payne.
Mozart gave string players the pleasure of playing fugues from the Well-tempered Clavier II – fresh arrangements by The Bach Players complete the set of all the four-part fugues from this work.

Listen to these sample tracks:

Fugue no.3 in E major (from the Well-tempered Clavier II [BWV 878], arranged by W.A. Mozart)

‘Missetaten, die mich drücken’ (from G.B. Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, arranged by J.S. Bach)

For more details and to buy copies, click here.

Nun komm!

This recording explores the form of the French overture in two of Bach’s cantatas and in a piece by a predecessor: Philipp Heinrich Erlebach. The Bach Players gather their fullest forces to perform the two thrilling cantatas.

For more details, click here.

We are inviting subscriptions for this recording: subscription forms can be downloaded.

Images

Martin Argyrgolo took photographs at the recording sessions for Bach arranging and arranged, some of which are reproduced in the CD booklet. The pictures here are among those we couldn’t fit into the booklet.

HPM01 session