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5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just one Magnificat worth knowing, Jun 23 2004
Whenever the Magnificat comes up in classical music, it's almost always in reference to Johann Sebastian Bach's setting of the Catholic Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary.Many composers before and after Bach have set the Magnificat, but apart from some of the earliest settings (Palestrina, di Lasso, Morales), few have been recorded. So, this disc, which pairs the more substantial (nearly half as long again) rendering of the Magnificat by Johann Sebastian's eldest son Carl Philipp Emanuel with his own should be a most welcome addition to any collection. In fact, if you don't have a recording of either Magnificat, this may be the only one you need. On first hearing, CPE's work had me rapt. I was floored by the festive sweep of the opening chorus. What an exciting, joyous noise coming from the pen of Bach's oldest son, who, while certainly an interesting composer, never struck me as capable of writing something so intense, so capable of pushing the right emotional buttons. The rest of the work did not disappoint me. Having only recently become familiar with Johann Sebastian's setting via another recording, I more or less expected his son's work to be a "me too" effort. When I was finished listening, however, I was left wondering why I didn't know that CPE had set the Magnificat (heck, I knew that Beethoven had contemplated doing the same during his last great burst of productivity) and, more curiously, why it hadn't been more frequently recorded. This recording would be worth having for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Magnificat alone. Fortunately, his father's more famous setting receives an equally fine performance, making the entire CD a worthwhile production. As a couple of other reviewers have noted, the sound is a bit reverberant (the terms 'echo-y' and 'spacey' were employed), courtesy of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Washington, D.C. Finally, unless I'm mistaken, Ted Libbey, credited with the "Editorial Review" above, is also the author of this disc's program notes.
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