Search - Gunther Leib, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Adolf Hasse :: Bach: Aus dem Klavierbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach

3.75 stars for the Anna Magdalena Notebook's return to Ameri

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 08/22/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"J.S. Bach put together the Anna Magdalena Notebook for his second wife of that name, a singer he married after the death of his first wife. The ad hoc group of familiar and unfamiliar harpsichord and vocal pieces represents Anna's favorite among Sebastian's compositions.



The music has had a number of recordings over the years. I first heard it in college when I was just meeting J.S. Bach in a performance where American soprano Benita Valenti performed the vocal parts. The most successful recording of recent years is still available on Harmonia Mundi Classical Express, tastefully performed by harpsichordist Nicholas McGegan and mezzo Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, made while the latter was still alive. While beautiful musicmaking, this alleged group of "highlights" of the Anna Magdalena Notebook is more a collection of greatest hits than what J.S. put together for his wife.



The recording at hand, which was recorded in 1969 and last released on CD in Germany in 1990, is closer to the real deal for historically correct enthusiasts. Befitting its age and time, the playing is somewhat old-fashioned as the listener will determine by hearing Track 1, the Polonaise in G. Herbert Collum's harpsichord playing is at a lower temperature and a slower pace throughout than what we are used to from the period crowd including McGegan on Harmonia Mundi. The singing of baritone Gunther Leib is similarly paced and warmly sung, nicely elocuted, and consistently wonderful. Soprano Adele Stolte is not his equal but is still pretty good in the soprano parts.



For Bach and Baroque enthusiasts, Berlin has returned to American soil an authentic collection of Bach's little notebook for his wife. This makes a fine collection of small pieces, most far less contrapuntally developed than we are used to from J.S. Bach, that can fulfill all kinds of roles from pleasant entertainment to antidote to a bad recording of Mahler. The sound is good, there are no notes, and the disk comes in a two-sided cardboard case with a plastic fitted insert for the disk."