Details: Amazon.ca
It is not possible to fit 36 Bach masterpieces onto 2CDs so what Essential Bach does is present individual movements from across a range of the composer's work. The anthology is clearly aimed at the newcomer and so the absence of booklet notes to put the music into context is disappointing. All we are told are the titles, the performers and what films the extracts have featured in, from Rollerball to The English Patient.
On the plus side, most if not all of the music will be instantly recognised, by melody if not by name. Everything from the Brandenburg Concertos to Air on a G String, to the B Minor Mass and St. Matthew Passion is represented. Performances range from 1960-93, encompassing both early instrument and modern orchestra interpretations, given by a wide variety of forces including Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields and Raymond Leppard leading the English Chamber Orchestra. With such diversity the result is unavoidably a patchwork, albeit one made from the finest materials, and as such is perhaps best taken as a "sampler" to aid exploration of the vast legacy of one of the very greatest composers who ever lived. --Gary S. Dalkin
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