Johann Sebastian Bach trained his many sons to be the finest organists of their time, yet hardly any organ music survives from them. Through transcription, improvisation, and other acts of imaginative re-creation this recording reunites Bach and his boys for a program that recaptures the virtuosic panache, commanding counterpoint, impressive poise, and exuberant excess of this first family on the organ. Played by award-winning Bach scholar and organist David Yearsley on Cornell University's reconstruction of a Berlin organ from 1706, known to at least one of the Bach sons, this program explores new dimensions not only of Johann Sebastian's towering achievement but also of the kinds of now-lost contributions the next Bach generation might have made to their family instrument's long and glorious history.

In 1747 Bach wrote a note to go with the piece on this disc: "To Your Majesty [Frederick the Great] I dedicate herewith, in deepest submissiveness, a Musical Offering . . . This undertaking has now been accomplished to the best of my ability, and it has no other object than exalting, if even in only a small degree, the fame of a Monarch whose greatness and power in all the arts both of war and of peace, but especially in music, everyone must admire and honor." And composers today complain about having to fill out NEA grant applications! Here we have a warm and carefully-crafted performance by the original group of instruments, Ensemble Sonnerie, made up of some of the most prominent musicians in the British early music scene.

A unique collection of music and pieces arranged for organ, composed by J.S. Bach and members of the Bach Family. Expertly arranged and played by Mark Swinton at the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick, UK, the music featured here demonstrates the development of keyboard music across the generations of the Bach family. The beautiful Nicholson organ of St Mary’s is perfectly suited to the music of the Baroque and early Classical periods.

This is a unique collection of largely unknown compositions of the Bach family, the largest and most incredibly talented musical family of all time. For nearly two hundred years, the Bach family dedicated themselves to singing God’s praises in music. Helmuth Rilling, who has made the works of J S Bach and his family his life work, performs these pieces with delicacy, energy and intelligence.

Neben Alfrerd Brendel, Friedrich Gulda und Paul Badura Skoda zählt auch Jörg Demus zu den Stars in der Reihe berühmter Wiener Pianisten. Der Österreicher wurde von den Klavier-Ikonen Yves Nat, Wilhelm Kempff, Walter Gieseking und Edwin Fischer unterrichtet und geprägt. Demus hat hat sich als kongenialer Liedbegleiter Fischer-Dieskaus ebenso einen Namen gemacht wie als herausragender Schumann-Interpret. Er gehört zur ersten Generation von Pianisten, die sich intensiv mit historisch-informierter Aufführungspraxis auseinandersetzten. Seit den 1960er Jahren hat er hier Pionierarbeit geleistet. Neben dem Repertoire der Wiener Klassik und der Romantik hatte er eine starke Affinität zum Barock.

Bach's viola da gamba sonatas with Lautenwerk! While the Sonata for Flute, Violin, and Passing Bass is an arranged version, the three Sonatas for Viola da gamba and Harpsichord that follow were composed around 1740, using Bach's own Lautenwerk (an instrument similar to a harpsichord, but with gut strings instead of metal strings), which belonged to Bach himself. Robert Hill used a replica of the lautenwerk to make this recording. The recording is a replica of the Lautenwerk, which allows for a greater sense of unity with the sound of Eckhard Weber's viola da gamba, and recreates the sound of the instrument at the time it was composed.

It was a real treat to revisit this recording—to be reminded how exuberant the celebratory sections, how crisply articulated both the choral and orchestral performances, how perfectly calibrated and lively the tempos, how buoyant the spirit of the playing and singing. And the solo singing is pretty fine too. Made in Berlin’s Jesus-Christus-Kirche in 1993, the production offers superb sound that conveys a natural presence of singers and instruments while capturing proper balances among the various performance components—there’s a surprising vibrancy to the sound that I don’t recall from the original recording.

The clavichord enjoyed widespread popularity during the 18th century and was particularly appreciated in the Germanic countries. With its soft sound and extremely sensitive ‘dynamic’ keyboard, we are immersed in a particularly intimate relationship with the music. This programme is created around the Bach family and features works for flute and keyboard obligato, which are richer and denser than those with continuo.

There is certainly no shortage of recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, but this version by a veteran American performer and teacher has something to offer to the interpretation of this work with so many facets and such a complex structure. Lisa Goode Crawford, a longtime professor at Ohio's Oberlin Conservatory and a performer on historical instruments since long before it was fashionable, plays a powerful harpsichord (apparently a copy of a Dutch Ruckers instrument, although this is not specified anywhere). It allows her to differentiate sharply among the variation types that make up Bach's massive edifice. Tempos in general are on the slow side, allowing the listener to luxuriate in the varied textures.

Bach’s remarkable Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are revered for their boundless inventiveness, technical ingenuity and emotional depth. With their brilliant preludes, stately dances and complex four-part fugues, the demands on the performer are enormous – from rapid scale passages, double stopping and arpeggios, to the skill and concentration required to create the illusion of separately moving and interweaving voices.

This is quite simply magnificent violin-playing, the sort that while you’re listening to it convinces you that the music couldn’t possibly be played any other way. You soon realize just how far she’s come since her teenage years, the tempo marginally more mobile and the variety of nuance and tone on offer so much wider than it had been.

Hearing guitarist Sean Shibe’s Bach recital, recorded in Delphian’s fifteenth-century Scottish venue, Baroque violinist Bojan Čičić was inspired during the first lockdown to begin recording Bach’s iconic Partitas and Sonatas. Amid the gloom of the pandemic and restrictions on performances, Čičić travelled north – when allowed – to explore the intense rigours of Bach’s fugues and shining virtuosity of the Partitas’ fast movements.

This recording is of the rarely performed late fourth version of the St. John Passion. Cantus Cölln performs the entire work as a double vocal quartet, producing vocal brilliance and immaculate solo sections. The ensemble is one of the most renowned vocal groups for Renaissance and Baroque music.

Those elusive qualities of ‘transcendental beauty paired with an enchanting simplicity’, eloquently glossed by Alban Gerhardt in his booklet note, might also be said to characterize his playing in this outstanding new recording.