Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Hang a star on this one!, Mar 21 2004
Superb sound; wonderful performances. I have most of these works in full priced recordings with Halstead on CPO. As good as they are, this is better & bargain priced to boot.Snap this one up.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Splendid Bargain - A Wonderful Composer, Jan 12 2001
By A Customer
This is the third Philips Duo issue of works by Johann Christian Bach, Bach's youngest son, and a much underrated and underappreciated composer. His work has been called "transitional" between the Baroque and Classical styles -- but I vehemently disagree: listen to some of JC's father's works -- High Baroque. To some of JC's elder brother, Carl Philip Emmanuel's, work -- THIS is clearly transitional. Now listen to JC Bach, and you are fully in the world and style of the High Classical Period -- the language is fully mature, only the structures are not as complex as they would become later iin the works of the three Viennese Masters. Remember that JC was, after learning from his father, brother, and then by absorbing all he could during his sojourn in Italy, finally isolated in England, and hence was not exposed to the innovations in Austria and Germany. Significantly for the history of Music, he knew Mozart as a boy -- and though Haydn's later influence shaped Mozart's grasp of structure most, it is the music of JC Bach in which one can find the source of the particular "sound" of Mozart, the musical language. It is also salutory to listen to the Op. 18 Sinfonias, published just a few months before JC's death, and wonder how he might have developed had he lived longer (at his death on the first day of 1782, he was only 46 years old-- a decade older than Mozart at his own death, but look how far JC came from the music of HIS youth!). The two previous duo sets issued by Philips -- that of the Opp. 1 & 7 Fortepiano Concertos and of the Sinfonias Opp. 6, 8 and 18, are foundation sets of the repertoire; this makes an invaluable third pillar! It incorporates the delicious Neville Marriner / ASMF recordings of the early Op. 3 Sinfonias. Even here, simple and short though the structures may be, the language is fully and unmistakably Classical. And to complete the issue is the wonderful Ingrid Haebler version of the Op. 13 Fortepiano Concertos. Beautiful rich recording does justice to JC's lush orchestrations and, at this price,this set, as do its two predecessors, makes a magnificent bargain! Lovers of the Classical Style need not hesitate!
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