Two handsomely illustrated hardback books are included. The set, the largest ever devoted to a single composer and exceeding in size even the massively-successful ‘Mozart 225’ Edition of two years ago, presents Bach’s complete oeuvre from 750 hand-picked performers and ensembles across 32 labels including Sony, Warner, BIS, SDG, Denon and Harmonia Mundi. We often sense these underlying features in Bach’s work while I don’t think he ever let them dominate his thinking, it was clearly a way in which he was expressing the harmony of the universe as he saw it.” The set is thus known as ‘Bach 333’.Īcross 16,926 minutes of music over 5,533 tracks, Bach 333 presents every known note from the great master and opens up his world – and his impact on our world – in a uniquely immersive way: through audio, visual, printed and online materials. The symbolism of three, and three times three, is everywhere in the collection of organ works Clavier-Übung III (1739). Nicholas Kenyon says: “333 is important, because one of the key Bach numbers is 3 representing the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. References to the number three reflect the important doctrine of God’s Tri-unity which lies at the core of Bach’s Lutheran faith. We can confidently say that certain numbers and numerical proportions had a special structural and sometimes religious significance for Bach. Even so, this is still a phenomenal set compared to other recordings made in the 1930s, and the value of the music trumps any roughness or weakness of sound.The set marks 333 years since the birth of J.S. While the reproduction is extraordinarily clear in these digitally remastered recordings, there remain patches of noise and a thinning of tone that seems to be the result of removing analog hiss. Since Casals' day, the Cello Suites have been played in many ways, including efforts to play them in an authentic Baroque manner, as well as more Romantic attempts at individual expression, but Casals still seems to be the standard against which other performances are measured, and these recordings are indispensable to any serious collector. Casals' freedom of phrasing and playfulness with rhythm make the music feel spontaneous and often intensely lyrical, and the quality of interpretation approaches recitative, insofar as Bach's lines at times receive an almost vocal expression. There is a mystique attached to these performances that overrides any minor defects of reproduction, and students of these works repeatedly turn to this cellist, who essentially rescued the suites from the tedium of the practice room and presented them to the world as fully fledged works of invention and virtuosity. Bach's 6 Cello Suites for EMI between 19 in London and Paris, and these legendary recordings have been in print for many decades without break.
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