Masato Suzuki – J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:49:30 minutes | 2,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Described as the ‘Pianists’ Old Testament’, The Well-Tempered Clavier is a collection of pieces of exceptional artistic quality. No other work from the baroque period has been as valued, performed and studied as this collection whose objectives were musical, theoretical and didactic. Both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier feature a prelude and fugue in each of the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale, covering each of the 24 major and minor modes – a unique body of works. No two preludes or fugues are alike; they display the full range of contrapuntal devices, while the preludes offer an infinite variety of melodic, rhythmic and constructional possibilities. Each of these pieces demonstrates a mastery of counterpoint that never takes precedence over emotion, beauty and aesthetics. With the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach established himself as the unrivalled master of the fugue genre. Following his recordings of Bach’s concertos for one and two harpsichords (BIS-2041, BIS 2051 and BIS-2481), which reviewers have praised for his unaffected playing and acute musicianship, Masato Suzuki now offers us his take on this Bach monument.
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Masato Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan – J.S. Bach: Concertos for Harpsichord & Strings, Vol. 2 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:44 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
The concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach for solo harpsichord and strings are some of the earliest, if not the very first, keyboard concertos. In all likelihood Bach wrote them for his own use (or that of his talented sons) – probably to be performed with Leipzig’s Collegium Musicum. The concertos’ fresh and exuberant character reflects how much Bach enjoyed the opportunity to engage with his fellow musicians, a quality that also came across on Masato Suzuki’s first installment of Bach’s harpsichord concertos together with his colleagues in Bach Collegium Japan: ‘sparkling performances…
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Bach Collegium Japan Chorus, Masaaki Suzuki, Masato Suzuki – Verbum caro factum est: A Christmas Greeting (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:21 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki have sung of the wonders of Christmas a number of times, in Bach’s cantatas and Christmas Oratorio as well as in Handel’s Messiah. Here, instead, we hear the choir a cappella in a selection of classic Christmas carols. Masato Suzuki, son of the ensemble’s founder and director, has selected some of the best-loved songs of Christmas, such as Adeste fideles and Silent Night, as well as less familiar hymns, arranging them especially for these singers. A consummate organist, he also performs a number of Louis-Claude Daquin’s noëls variés – keyboard variations on Christmas songs which became a highly popular genre in 18th-century France.
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Bach Collegium Japan, Masato Suzuki – Bach: Concertos for Harpsichord & Strings, Vol. 1 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:34 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
The extant concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach for one harpsichord and strings were all composed before 1738, which makes them some of the first, if not the first keyboard concertos – a genre destined to become one of the most popular within classical music. In all likelihood Bach wrote them for his own use (or that of his talented sons) – probably to be performed with Leipzig’s Collegium Musicum of which he had taken over as director in 1729. The fresh and exuberant character one finds in the concertos seems to reflect how much Bach enjoyed the opportunity to engage with his fellow musicians. But much of the music itself was in fact not new – despite how idiomatic they may sound, many of Bach’s harpsichord concertos are almost certainly transcriptions of earlier works written for other instruments.
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Antoine Tamestit & Masato Suzuki – J.S. Bach: 3 Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, BWV 1027-1029 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:38 minutes | 935 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Antoine Tamestit and his artistic partner Masato Suzuki, a soloist in the famous Bach Collegium Japan, have immersed themselves in Bach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord in order to give a sublime interpretation of them on the viola – both instruments use the same alto clef, even if the projection of the sound is entirely different. So this is no transcription, but leaves the artists in total freedom to rediscover with delight these all too rarely played masterpieces!
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