Kurt Redel Interprets J.S. Bach

Read About This Recording

Erato Records was founded in 1953 with its initial mandate to promote French Baroque music. Since that time, the label has created some of the greatest recordings we now enjoy and has established some of the most notable artists in classical music including Jean-François Paillard, Maurice André, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Marie-Claire Alain and Hélène Grimaud.

Kurt Redel began his career as a flutist and eventually turned his career toward conducting. In the mid 1950s, it was Redel who rediscovered Johann Pachelbel's Canon and first recorded it for Erato, in addition to creating world premiere recordings of other Baroque composers. He is known, much like Leopold Stokowki, for his transcriptions and arrangements of the works of Bach.

Here, on one CD, is a wonderful survey of Bach performed by the Chamber Orchestra Pro Arte of Munich, led by Redel. It includes the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," the Air on a G-String and the monumental Passacaglia in C minor, a musical form that Bach himself found so imposing that he only composed one in his lifetime. This is Bach in all its architectural splendor and Redel gives new life to these impressive works — works that Bach may have scored for the modern orchestra had it existed during his lifetime.

—J. Maxwell Fletcher

Contents

Cantatas: Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV33 (Aria in C Major); Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit, BWV1115 (Chorale in G Major); Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV36 (Chorale in B Minor); Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV80 (Aria in D Major); Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV147 (Chorale); Passacaglia & Fugue in C Minor, BWV582; Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV565; Chorale-Prelude in B Minor, BWV727; Fantasia & Fugue in A Minor, BWV904; Aria in C Major from Suite No. 3, BWV1068.

Helmuth Lohse, Harpischord; Orchestre de Chambre Pro Arte de Munich; Kurt Redel, Conductor.