|
|
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Be Warned! This is not Bach alone. It's also György Kurtág!, 4 Nov 2004
I'm not at all sure who the audience for this DVD is?. The front cover (and the information provided by Amazon), does not make at all clear what the DVD contains. The back cover does not make it much clearer, either, without close scrutiny, that this is NOT a complete traversal of the Bach 'Art of the Fugue' played by a string quartet, here the estimable Keller Quartet. It includes, rather, only Contrapuncti 1-4, 6, 9, 11 and 18. And interspersed amongst these Bach fugues are several compositions for quartet or string trio by contemporary Hungarian composer György Kurtág, who is a fine composer with enormous craft but who writes ultramodern music; the jarring nature of switching back and forth between Bach and Kurtág was simply more than I could tolerate. (For what it's worth, the booklet notes make grand rationalizations about why they interleaved Bach and Kurtág here. I was not convinced.) The Keller have recorded the complete 'Art of Fugue' on CD and if you are truly interested in their version of this masterpiece, I'd suggest you go there; it is available here at Amazon (go to ASIN B000025HN5) but I don't think it is the same performance as on this DVD. One other caution about the DVD, though--even though they are in a fairly reverberant space, they play, as if often the custom these days, with almost no vibrato. The DVD's second part (roughly 44 minutes compared to the Keller's 71 minutes) contains the distinguished Dutch cellist playing two of Bach's Cello Suites, No. 1 in G and No. 5 in C Minor. Shot in gloriously beautiful surroundings--a room in the St. Bartholomew Church in Dornheim--this is altogether a more enjoyable experience. Bylsma's tone is soft, rounded and beautifully |
(1 customer review)
See all customer reviews...
