{"id":83,"date":"2011-07-30T21:47:51","date_gmt":"2011-07-31T01:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/?p=83"},"modified":"2011-07-30T21:47:51","modified_gmt":"2011-07-31T01:47:51","slug":"day-three-orchestral-suites-1-2-cd-1-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/?p=83","title":{"rendered":"Day Three: Orchestral Suites 1 & 2 (CD 1-3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bach<\/a>When this CD began to play, my mind couldn’t find the melody in the music.<\/p>\n

“Are we listening to an orchestra tuning up?” I asked my wife.<\/p>\n

“I can hear a melody there,” she said. Of course, she’s a musician who plays the French horn. So her ears are probably sharper than mine.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it’s that I’m used to Mozart’s simpler, prettier melodies. So when Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1 started, it seemed like a lot was going on, more than I could discern (and appreciate) at first.<\/p>\n

So I took control of the situation and got my head around what I could<\/em> understand. According to the Wikipedia entry for Orchestral Suites (Bach)<\/a>,<\/p>\n

The four Orchestral Suites or Ouvertures BWV 1066\u20131069 are a set of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, probably composed between 1725 and 1739 in Leipzig. The word overture refers to an opening movement in which a section of slow dotted-note rhythm is followed by a fugue; at the time, this name was also used to refer to a whole suite of dance-pieces in the French baroque style.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That<\/em> I can understand. Bach was between 40 and 54 years of age, living in Leipzig, Germany. And these pieces of music contain fugues and are of the French baroque style.<\/p>\n

Check.<\/p>\n

That explains their “busy” sound.<\/p>\n

These pieces of music were performed by La Stravaganza Koln<\/a> on period instruments under the direction of Andrew Manze. La Stravaganza Koln is “one of Germany’s leading baroque orchestras on period instruments” (according to their web site).<\/p>\n

Soloists of note include Masahiro Arita, flauto traverso, and Christoph Lehmann, organ. Incidentally, the phrase “flauto traverso” refers to a Transverse Flute<\/a>, which is “held horizontally when played. The player blows ‘across’ the embouchure hole, in a direction perpendicular to the flute’s body length.” Arita really shines in “VII – Badinerie” from Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor for flute, strings and continuo.<\/p>\n

The musicianship on this CD is, as it was on the previous two, superb. The recording is crisp and clear. The performances are top-notch.<\/p>\n

And the period instruments add a very nice touch. If you listen carefully to music (as I do) you’ll notice right away the difference in sound.<\/p>\n

Despite the pluses, this isn’t music I could listen to as often as I do Brandenburg Concertos 1-3. It’s great. But it’s not sprightly or engaging enough to bear up to repeated listenings. If I had to pick a favorite — Orchestral Suite No. 1 or Orchestral Suite No. 2 — I’d have to say it was Orchestral Suite No. 1. I prefer my Classical music on the sprightly side. That fit the bill.<\/p>\n

But it’s no Brandenburg Concerto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When this CD began to play, my mind couldn’t find the melody in the music. “Are we listening to an orchestra tuning up?” I asked my wife. “I can hear a melody there,” she said. Of course, she’s a musician who plays the French horn. So her ears are probably sharper than mine. Or maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,30,22,28,29,27,40,33,36,32,39,35,8,31,38,41],"tags":[423,422],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}