Bach to basics
One of the many downsides of our clickbait obsessed culture is the neglect of not very clickbait-able J S Bach. To compensate for that in a very small way this post highlights some old and new, straight and not so straight, recordings of Bach's music that have given me particular pleasure recently. For 38 years Valentin Erben was cellist of the Alban Berg Quartet. In 2020 at the age of 75 Valentin Erben recorded the Bach Cello Suites framed by nine organ chorales played by his son Sebastian Erben. The three CDs were recorded by the Paladino label in Marienkapelle & Bruckner-Orgel, Stiftskirche, St. Florian, Austria and were released last year. Back in 1999 the German jazz pianist Thomas Gabriel recorded the CD Bach Jazz with his trio. There is certainly no shortage of jazz treatments of Bach with Jacques Loussier's as the gold standard. But the Thomas Gabriel Trio's interpretation stands out due to its innovative but sensitive use of improvisation. Ther
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