The 7th Set of Bach Cantatas on Spotify

A new one voice per part (OVPP) series of Bach cantata recordings by La Petite Bande and conductor Sigiswald Kuijken is underway on Accent Records. The series will comprise 17 (some say 20) hybrid SACDs; not a complete set, but enough for a complete liturgical year. Classic FM comments: "The surround-sound experience, in which all voices register clearly within the setting of a large, reverberant space, aids contemplation of words and music. Then there is the sheer quality of Las Petite Bande's musicmaking, which blends impeccable period style with genuine substance of expression."

Get Kuijken's Bach cantatas set in one Spotify playlist: Bach Cantatas - Kuijken (310 tracks, total time: 15 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. An earlier Kuijken/LPB/Accent recording of Bach's cantatas for solo voices is not part of the series, but I included it at the end of the playlist. More links: discussions on this set at Bach Cantatas; a video of La Petite Bande Live at Ambronay 2009.

I made playlists for the other six complete sets of Bach cantatas in 2010: Rilling, Suzuki, Gardiner and Harnoncourt & Leonhardt, Leusink, Koopman (check out those posts for useful links). At that time many recordings were missing on Spotify; now every released recording from those sets are available, and the playlists were updated (if you already subscribed to them, they will update automatically in your place).

Playlists for the other six sets:

Bach Cantatas - Gardiner (1119 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Harnoncourt & Leonhardt (1239 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Koopman (1518 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Leusink (1219 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Rilling (1143 tracks)
Bach Cantatas - Suzuki (1213 tracks) 

Family Album: 53 Musical Bachs on Spotify

The Bach family was of importance in the history of music for nearly two hundred years, with over 50 known musicians and several notable composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and 4 of his 11 sons: W.F. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, J. C. F. Bach and J. C. Bach (if you find that confusing, just think of this: four of J.S. Bach's brothers had the same first name Johann; the other? Johannes).

Morning prayers in the family of Sebastian Bach

Every album in this playlist features works of various musical Bachs in one disk, except the four Carus albums at the beginning, which are dedicated to the four famous sons of J.S. Bach respectively. Total disk numbers are over 30, some highlights are:

Sacred Music Of The Bach Family (Hänssler): 12 Bachs
Organ Works Of The Bach Family (Hänssler): 10 Bachs
3 volumes of Bachiana by Musica Antiqua Köln (DG/Archiv)
Bach Dynasty by Les Talens Lyriques (Naive)
Family Matters by Musica Novantica Vienna (Gramola)
The Father, the Son & the Godfather (BIS), Telemann was the Godfather and namesake of C. P. E. Bach; this album and Isaac Stern's Trio Sonatas of The Bach Family and Telemann (Sony) also feature his works.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: The Bach Family Albums (521 tracks, total time: 42 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view (yes you really should do that for this playlist clustered with Bachs). See this page for a detail family history and more.

Bach on Classical Guitar

Just 30 hours of mind-blowing - or mind-soothing, depending on your level of focus on the music - J.S. Bach played by some of the best classical guitarists: Andres Segovia, Göran Söllscher, Julian Bream, John Williams, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, Xuefei Yang, Paul Galbraith, Narciso Yepes, Prague Guitar Quartet and more.

(Picture take from cover of this book)

Works in this playlist include guitar transcriptions of the lute suites; sonatas and partitas for solo violin; cello suites; Goldberg Variations; orchestral suites and Brandenburg Concertos etc, played on 6, 8, 11 or 12-string classical guitars or by guitar ensembles.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Bach on Classical Guitar (456 tracks, total time: 30 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. As with Bach's many other works, this music is suitable for almost every occasion: it never ceases to amaze after repeated listening, and it is also perfect background music for reading or relaxing.

Bach transcriptions on jazz guitar, electric guitar, banjo, ukelele, marimba and everything else will be another playlist someday.

Bach Works Catalogue (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) on Spotify

"Perhaps the most serious complaint you could make about Bach is that he has every quality of humanity except imperfection." -Jeremy Denk

I made a playlist of Hänssler's Complete Bach Edition before (duo to a temporary glitch, most recordings from that playlist became unavailable since this week; Hänssler's digital distributor Naxos told me they were re-delivering them to Spotify). The performances in that Edition were very fine, but few of them are first choices. So I compiled another playlist for the complete works of J.S. Bach, using the best non-Hänssler recordings, from DG (Helmut Walcha, Martha Argerich), Decca (András Schiff), EMI (Pierre Hantai), Sony (Glenn Gould, Murray Perahia), Warner (Nikolaus Harnoncourt), BIS (Masaaki Suzuki), SDG (John Eliot Gardiner), Nonesuch (Lorraine Hunt Lieberson), Harmonia Mundi (Richard Egarr), CPO (Gerhard Weinberger) and many other labels that I could find.

Works in this playlist are sorted by BWV numbers, from BWV 1 to 1128 (discovered in 2008). Works with Anhang ("Appendix") numbers are attached at the end. The BWV catalogue itself is sorted by genre; see detailed list of works in this Wiki page.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Bach Works Catalogue (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) (3488 tracks, total time: 168 hours) It works better in Album view. All tracks are available on both Spotify UK and US. There is no such thing as a definite recording of Bach's work, so I used as many recordings as possible (six recordings for the six unaccompanied cello suites, for example), and I will keep on updating this playlist to include more outstanding albums. Look forward to your suggestions.

Happy 327th birthday.

Guest Post: Bach's 133 Arias For Tenor

Jon Ploug Jørgensen is a young Danish classicist, or teacher of classics, with a strong proclivity for all things classical.

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It was only a year ago that I discovered Bach's arias. I always knew they were there and have enjoyed them when I heard works such as the Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, etc. But it was only when I started to use Spotify that I learned about the hundreds of other arias which Bach composed as a small part of his hundreds of cantatas - an achievement I still find it hard to comprehend! Perhaps the greatest discovery here was that these arias - composed at a furious pace - were as good as the arias from the large and more famous oratorios.

It was especially the arias for tenor that caught me, and I must admit that I almost never listened to any other music for the last six month. For convenience, I set up a playlist in Spotify, where I gathered all Bach’s arias for tenor, which I hear present.

When you stumble upon something great you want to share it and I am therefore pleased that Ulysses will present them on his excellent blog. A blog, which also has brought me lots of inspiration for classical listening.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Bach's Arias for Tenor (133 tracks, total time: 9 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view

Guest Post by Jon Ploug Jørgensen.

P.S. There are at least six complete or semi-complete sets of J.S. Bach's cantatas on Spotify, you can get them in six playlists here and here.

Complete Works of J.S. Bach - Hänssler Edition on Spotify

"When the angels play for God they play Bach; to each other, they play Mozart." - Isaiah Berlin

"Now there is finally music from which a man can learn something." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, upon hearing a Bach motet in Leipzig.

What's in this playlist: The complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded under the artistic direction of Helmuth Rilling, released by Hänssler Classic, first as 140 individual volumes, then as a 172 CDs box-set in 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach's death.

The albums in this playlist are arranged by volume numbers, from Vol.1 to 140, and grouped by genres as listed below. The volumes themselves are arranged, though not strictly, by BWV numbers.

Vol. 01-60 Church cantatas
Vol. 61-68 Secular cantatas
Vol. 69 Motets
Vol. 70-73 Masses, single mass movements, Magnificat
Vol. 74-77 Passions & Oratorios
Vol. 78-85 Four part chorales, hymns and arias
Vol. 86-101 Organ works
Vol. 102-117 Clavier works (harpsichord)
Vol. 118-124 Chamber music (Including works for lute)
Vol. 125-132 Orchestral works
Vol. 133-134 Canons, Musical Offering, The Art of the Fugue
Vol. 135-140 Other works

139 of the 140 volumes, or 169 of the this 171-CD (the 172nd CD is a CD-ROM) edition is available on Spotify. The missing ones are the Goldberg Variations, Six Sonatas and Paritas For Solo Violin and the Brandenburg Concertos. I used other Hänssler recordings of the first two works and Jordi Savall's Brandenburg to fill in the blanks.

How to use this playlist: 1, Set your Spotify to Shuffle Mode, and double click this playlist. Radio Bach is on the air. Since the playlist contains over 175 hours of music, you are not very likely to encounter the same piece twice in a day, even if you play all day long. 2, If you have a particular works in mind, say BWV 1007 the first Cello Suite, go to this playlist, press ctrl (CMD) + F to bring out the filter bar, input 1007 or cello suite, find the work and play. You will hear the music within a couple of seconds after the piece comes to your mind, much faster and more convenient than going through the physical box-set, and your don’t have to spend at least 30 GB of your hard-drive to store the digital files either. The beauty of Spotify and the cloud.

When I first put the completed playlist on shuffle, it played the 6-voice ricercar from Musical Offering. I guess it's like leafing through a Bible and the first thing you see is the Lord' s Prayer.

Here' s the Spotify playlist: Bach: Complete Works - Hänssler Edition (3526 tracks, total time: 1 week). It works better in Album view.

For those who are looking for an introduction to Bach, check out this excellent Naxos Audiobook on Spotify: Life And Works: Johann Sebastian Bach. Click here for a larger photo of Bach taken with Mr. Spotify.

And Hänssler, if you are reading this, please make the 5000 pages text material and two books accompanying this edition available for purchase or as free PDFs. You know that makes sense. Thank you.

2012 Update: I compiled a new playlist for complete work of Bach, using non-Hänssler recordings.

The Most Significant Piano Work of the Millennium

At least the eminent Charles Rosen said so.

If you are interested in this magnificent composition, J.S. Bach's The Musical Offering, and Prussia history of Bach's time in general, I recommend this book: Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment.

Here's the Spotify playlist: The Musical Offering: Ricercar in 6 Voices (21 tracks, total time: 2 hours) It features the ricercar played on piano (by Rosen), organ, harpsichord, and by various kinds of ensembles, plus orchestra arrangement by Anton Webern, and a triple orchestra version by Igor Markevitch. Yes it's the same music played 20 times (one version is not available in the UK and one in Sweden), but this is probably the best example of a piece of music that bears, deserves and benefits from repeated listens. Enjoy.

More Complete Sets of Bach Cantatas + An Open Playlist

No it's not an unhealthy obsession, the Bach Cantatas deserve all these different recordings: HIP or modern instruments, sopranos or boy sopranos, one voice per part or choirs, you should listen to them all and judge for yourself. They all reveal the numerous possibilities in Bach's works in their own unique way. Thankfully Spotify will also protect you from bankruptcy while offering you all the music.

Here are the Spotify playlists:

Bach Cantatas - Harnoncourt & Leonhardt (1239 tracks, all 60 CDs are in here) "A major project, shared with Gustav Leonhardt, to record all Bach’s sacred cantatas was launched in 1971 and completed in 1990. Each director revealed his own distinctive approach in the series, with Harnoncourt the more demonstrative, exuberant, and mannerist in his musical expression. The enterprise established a landmark in Bach recording, both for its challenging of previously accepted interpretative conventions and for the use of a boy’s voice to sing almost all the soprano solos." - Bach-Cantatas.com

Bach Cantatas - Leusink (1219 tracks, all 60 CDs are in here) Recorded by Conductor Pieter Jan Leusink, Holland Boys Choir and Netherlands Bach Collegium. "In 1999 and 2000 all Bach's sacred cantatas were recorded within 15 months, a tremendous achievement, considering the fact that it was accomplished with the same amateur (read literately: music-loving) choir, soloists and orchestra throughout the project, in itself deserving an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The project aroused storms of criticism in The Netherlands on alleged grounds of inferior haste-work (Recording at this speed must be superficial and lacking depth) and commercialism (imagine! Culture with a capital C on the shelves of a drugstore: how low can you go!), even before anyone had heard a single note! Since the release of the first boxes, reviews have become more and more favorable, especially from foreign critics from all over the world" - Bach-Cantatas.com

Bach Cantatas - Koopman (956 tracks, 14 out of 22 volumes that are available on Spotify, are in here) 13 volumes actually, and I put in all the non-duplicate cantatas from other Koopman recordings, approximately one volume's worth. "Koopman's directing vitality keeps the music spontaneously alive, with no sense of over-refinement or scholarly rectitude; the recording is first class, and the documentation could hardly be more informative. In short, this is a more enjoyable and rewarding series that will give much satisfaction" - Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, 2008.

And here's an open playlist for Bach Cantata fans:

Listen to Bach Cantatas (14 tracks at this moment, continuously growing.)

Please add you favourite tracks, or the movement that really moves you as you listen through those Cantata playlists, into this open playlist. Bach Cantata recordings from albums other than those six complete sets are welcome too, and I've already put in many of them. Newcomers to the cantatas can also use this open playlist as an introduction to this magnificent new world. Yes, 300 years after they were written down, they are still much more fresh than most, if not all, of the "new music" that are fresh out of the oven everyday. One more useful link: notes and translations for all the cantatas.

Complete Sets of Bach Cantatas on Spotify

Places in which Bach lived throughout his life

During J.S.Bach's tenure in Leipzig it was part of his job to perform a church cantata every Sunday and Holiday, so he composed a new work every week and conducted the first performances. Three annual cycles of cantatas survived. Here are three Spotify playlists for three complete recordings of these cantatas, one of the greatest achievements in the history of art.

Bach Cantatas - Rilling (1383 tracks, total time: 2 days) Performed by Helmuth Rilling and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, recorded during 1969-1985. Sorted by BWV number. The most complete set on Spotify so far.

Bach Cantatas - Suzuki (986 tracks, total time: 1 day) Performed by Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan. An ongoing project. The latest recording, Vol. 47 was released last month. Arranged in numerical order of the recordings.

Bach Cantatas - Gardiner (1029 tracks, total time: 2 days) Performed by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists. All recorded during Gardiner's transcendental Pilgrimage in year 2000, the releasing progress in still going on. Arranged in numerical order of the recordings. Press Ctrl (Command on Macs) + G to browse in album view

Update: Three more complete sets on Spotify, by Harnoncourt & Leonhardt, Leusink, and Koopman.

Some useful sites: the Wiki page, the "official" Bach Cantatas, A Listener's Guide, Haenssler page for the Rilling set, BIS page for the Suzuki set, and Cantata Finder for the Gardiner set.

BTW according to Spotify, they are "currently experiencing some problems with playlists not loading normally". If you find these playlists empty or incomplete, just subscribe to them, then restart Spotify. Enjoy the eternal blessings of Bach, with Spotify.

37 Ways to Play the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin

1720 Autograph of the Adagio

Naturally, after the WTC playlist, I compiled another one for the supreme masterwork for the queen of all instruments: Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. So far I found 37 recordings by 32 artists, from Schumann and Brahms' lifelong friend Joseph Joachim, who made the Bach recording in 1903, to the talented young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, who was born 147 years later than Joachim. Just like the WTC playlist, this one can also function as an index of great violinists on Spotify. Only significant missings seem to be Joseph Szigeti and Adolf Busch.


I put the opening movement of the first sonata, the adagio from every recording to this playlist, you can compare the first notes of every recording at ease, or, much better than that, simply brower the artist names and pick up one recording for two hours of sublime music.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin (37 tracks, total time: 2 hours) You can find some useful notes and reviews here. My favourite recordings for now are Grumiaux, Mintz, Milstein and Szeryng's.

30 Ways to Play the Well-Tempered Clavier

Today's post is about a 30-track playlist of music's most fascinating and intriguing work, The Well-Tempered Clavier composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. I chose 30 different recordings of this work made by 30 distinctive artists, and put every C Major prelude BWV 846 in this playlist. The result is great fun, you can listen to 30 different interpretations of this profoundly charming prelude in a row, or simple browse the artist names and pick up one complete recording of the WTC and listen to the full album.


Most of my favourite recordings are on Spotify now, Edwin Fischer, Glenn Gould, András Schiff, Till Fellner, Sviatoslav Richter, and Rosalyn Tureck. And in the progress of compiling this playlsit I found a truly great recording that was unknown to me, the complete WTC by Australian pianist Roger Woodward, here's a very informative blog post about him. Another stimulating recording is from Olli Mustonen, who mixed the Old Testament of piano literature with Shostakovich's 24 Prelude and Fugue Op. 87. The only important missing recordings of WTC I can think of are Pierre Hantai, Kenneth Gilbert and Angela Hewitt's. I hope Spotify makes a deal with Hyperion soon.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Well-Tempered Clavier (30 tracks, total time: to infinity and beyond). You can find lots of helpful reviews on these recordings here. And this video below clearly demonstrates the importance of interpreters in Bach's music:)

Goldberg Variations: On Harpsichord, Accordion, Harp, Guitar, Organ, a Wacky Piano and Piano Duo

One of the most fascinating things about Bach's music is that it is open to seemingly unlimited possibilities of interpretations. The Italian Concerto for harpsichord can be turned into a swing jazz trio, and Cantata 140 made a perfect countermelody for A Whiter Shade of Pale. After Glenn Gould's legendary 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations, numerous instrumentalists and ensembles have approached it in so many different manners. Personally I found Murray Perahia's the most satisfying, but there's also many other interesting recordings available on Spotify.

Here's my Spotify playlist of some Goldberg recordings: Variations Goldberg

Céline Frisch's version is the best one on harpsichord I've heard. Denis Patković's accordion version includes a series of musical interludes--specifically conceived for insertion into Bach's score--composed by Finnish composer Jukka Tiensuu. The young German pianist Martin Stadtfeld offers arguably the most orthodox performance of BWV988 ever, I can't say that I love it or I'm convinced, but it's definitely not wacky for wacky's sake. I think that any interpretation that stirs the listeners to disagree with the artist in a creative way is worth hearing.

Besides versions played on harp by Catrin Finch, on guitar by Kurt Rodarmer, and on organ by Bernard Lagacé, I also including a very new recording of Max Reger's piano duo arrangement of Goldberg, released in November, 2009. Another recording of this arrangement was selected as the best new recording of 2009 by WETA, here's a quotation on the arrangement:

"There are moments where, in reference to the opera paraphrases of Liszt et al., you might want to re-title: “L’Grand Fantasie d’Goldberg”, but surprisingly few. Instead, the joy is to perk your ears and listen for the often subtle little additions, fourth melodies, staccato octaves added in hushed shades of pianissimo. Even the aria, which is traded among the players but not actually modified, is so captivating that you go from incredulous eyebrow-raising (as you unwrap) to astonished eyebrow-raising as you listen to what’s played."

Of all the artists that yet to release a Goldberg, I look forward to Till Fellner most. His Bach recordings on ECM so far are very pleasing, and here on NPR you can hear him playing a truly graceful Pastoral sonata.

Again here is the full playlist, happy listening, and leave a comment if you have other versions to recommend, or any of these versions drove you mad:)