Product Description Globally recognized as the only authoritative edition of Bach's works celebrating a lifetime's work and sought-after throughout the world. Hanssler Classic's Edition Backakademie set the standard for Bach interpretation! After tens of thousands of copies of the original box set sold globally, Hanssler Classic makes the epic Bach Edition available once again completely redesigned, streamlined and updated and Includes 172 CDs in black paper sleeves, in a very attractive, elegant looking, light and handy box a 5000 pages text material on CD-ROM and two books with BWV and CD number listing. Review Do you need 172 CDs of Bach's music? Well, some of us do; some of us need even more. This Bach-itis has led me to collect more than 1,000 discs of Bach, and, while I've slowed down on purchases in recent years, I do pick up some new Bach recordings every now and then, notably the recently concluded set of cantatas recorded by John Eliot Gardiner (review). But do you really need all this music? Perhaps you're a casual fan of Bach's music and you want more. You could buy individual CDs, filling your collection slowly, looking for the best versions of each work. This is time-consuming and expensive. Or you could buy a complete set of Bach's music, offering you the ability to sample all of this great composer's works, then, if you find affinities with specific works and want to seek out other versions, do so. I've long been a fan of the latter approach, especially since Brilliant Classics has shaken up the classical music business with their very low priced box sets of complete (or collected) works of various composers. In fact, the first big Brilliant Classics box I got was their set of Bach recordings, released back in 2001. (review). This is a mixed bag, with some excellent recordings, but quite a few mediocre discs. While I initially felt the cantata recordings to be good, more recent recordings (by Gardiner, Suzuki and others) have put them near the back of the pack. This brings me to the subject at hand:, the Hänssler set of Bach recordings, which the label organized around 2000, during the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of Bach's death. At first, Hänssler set out to fill out their Bach recordings, which were built around Helmuth Rilling's set of the sacred cantatas. They enlisted Rilling to oversee the set, and came up with a wonderful collection of 172 CDs in 140 volumes (a number of the volumes contain 2 or 3 discs). After releasing them individually, they then sold a box set, at what was then considered a normal price, but since the advent of Brilliant Classics pricing, seemed expensive. Hänssler has now re-issued this set in a space-saving box at a "nice" price, or 299. The set is currently available for around $300 in the US, less than £200 in the UK, and around 225 elsewhere in the EU. Let's start by looking at what you get in the box. It's a big box, sleek and well-designed, and, as you can see in the illustration to this review, opens to show the CDs in three sections. Each CD is in a paper and glassine sleeve, and is well labelled. The CDs have colour coding for the different types of works (cantatas, sacred music, organ, keyboard, instrumental), and each bears a large volume number and a title. The discs are therefore easy to find and choose from the box. There are also two booklets: one is a full catalogue of the set, by disc, with track-listings; this runs to nearly 300 pages. The second is an index by BWV number, which then points you to specific discs. Finally, there is a CD-ROM with complete texts of the vocal music, extensive notes and detailed track and artist information. These are provided in 14 PDF files that you can view on any computer. They contain the full notes that you would expect to receive with CDs, in German, English, French and Spanish, and total some 5,000 CD-sized pages. Hänssler has clearly not scrimped on the documentation, and one should actually expect this with any big box set. In reality such high-quality documentation is, alas, rare. There are nearly 178 hours of music in this box, which is a daunting prospect for anyone. Even fans of Bach will find some works that don't interest them much - perhaps the eight discs of chorale settings, which have not been recorded often, yet contain some gems - but choosing either to traverse the set in order, or at random, yields many excellent recordings. Back in 2000, during the wonderful Bach year, I bought a number of the individual Hänssler discs to fill out my collection. This was in part because, at the time, there were not a lot of choices for some of the less common works, but also because of the excellent quality of these recordings. I notably purchased many of the keyboard recordings, and some of them have become my favourites. I'd note especially Trevor Pinnock's superlative recording of the Partitas; Peter Watchorn's great Toccatas disc; and the Well-Tempered Clavier recorded by Robert Levin in a unique manner, with different works played on harpsichord, clavichord, organ and fortepiano. Naturally, at nearly one-third of the box, the sacred cantatas are form the biggest chunk here. They are arguably Bach's finest works, together with the secular cantatas (eight discs) and the other sacred vocal works (passions, masses, motets and oratorios) which cover 16 discs. This is where this box is simply a bargain. Helmuth Rilling is an excellent conductor and interpreter of Bach's sacred music. While I have a preference for John Eliot Gardiner's cantata recordings, because of his forces and his more HIP choices, there is no doubt that Rilling's recordings are excellent. Recorded from 1969 to 1985, over a longer period of time than most other sets, there is a lot of change throughout the series. Rilling's recordings are more dense and lush than others, and his tempi are often slower than HIP recordings - no "original instruments" for Rilling. But he creates such a detailed sound-world that any fan of these works should want to hear Rilling's versions to compare with others. This said, Rilling often uses a technique that I find a bit disturbing. He'll have one instrument or group of instruments sequestered to one track, and others on the other track, giving a sound similar to that of early Beatles' stereo mixes, where vocals were on one track and instruments on the other. This is something you never hear in live performance; while one instrument may be on one side, you still hear it on the other side. This tends to make some of the movements sound as though there's no blend among the singers and musicians. It's worth noting that, in some cases, re-takes were made months after initial recordings of some movements of the cantatas, and the sound can vary from one part of a cantata to another. But this doesn't detract from the overall tone. One more point: the actual recording quality of these works varies, and is generally not as clean as that of more recent cantata recordings using newer technology. While this is a minor detail, it can be obvious if you compare different recordings of a given cantata. Rilling notably has an excellent collection of singers in the sacred works. To name but a few that stand out: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Arleen Augér, Helen Watts, Edith Wiens, Peter Schreier, Philipp Huttenlocher, Matthias Goerne, Juliane Banse, Thomas Quasthoff, Christoph Prégardien and many more. And Rilling's choirs are always top-notch. The same can be said for the other sacred works, the passions, oratorios and masses. So far I've barely scratched the surface, even though the sacred vocal works are the heart of the collection. The organ works fill 20 CDs, the keyboard works 32, 11 discs of chamber music, 11 discs of orchestral music, and 4 discs of alternate versions of cantatas. There's a very attractive recording of the Musical Offering, on a variety of instruments: fortepiano, harpsichord, viola da gamba, flute and violin. Robert Hill's recording of The Art of Fugue on harpsichord is brilliant, and includes early versions of some of the fugues; the notes explain the different versions, and tell you how you can program the tracks in such a way as to listen to the two different versions of the work. One disc contains reconstructed violin concertos performed by Isabelle Faust. Another fine recording, again by Robert Hill, shows off the rarely recorded lute-harpsichord. Hille Perl and Michael Beringer play the sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord. And the Oregon Bach Festival Chamber Orchestra, led by Helmuth Rilling, plays the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites; certainly not my favourite versions, but fine ones nevertheless. One of the only elements I find missing is versions of The Art of Fugue for organ and for chamber orchestra. Some criticisms are in order, though. Boris Pergamenschikow's cello suites are ponderous; Dmitry Sitkovetsky's solo violin recordings are a bit better, but not up to the competition. These are two of my favourite groups of Bach's works, and I turn to other recordings when I want to listen to them. The organ works are performed by seven different organists, playing in different locations. Organ recordings often try to vary their sound by using different organs, and the sound is different from one to another, as is the style. In some ways I would have preferred a single organist, even at different locations, but this isn't a deal-breaker. So, back to my initial question: do you need this set? It depends on how Bach-obsessed you are. If you're familiar with Rilling's cantata recordings, and appreciate them, then this set is worth getting if only for those discs - which do make up more than a third of the set. If you have a lot of Bach and want more, then the answer is obvious. And if you don't have a lot of Bach, and want to discover all of his works in recordings that range from very good to excellent you can't go wrong. Comparing this set to the Brilliant Classics box, I would certainly give higher grades to Hänssler. It is more expensive, but I think it's a much more worthwhile investment than the more uneven Brilliant Classics set. No matter what, at about $1.50, £1 or 1.30 a disc, if you care about Bach enough to want this much music, you owe it to yourself to get this set. Add it to your Christmas list, perhaps, or buy yourself a present. -- MusicWeb International, Kirk McElhearn, November 2010
S**E
Missing disc, and wrong keys
Disc #63 is missing, and Amazon doesn't have any way to contact the seller.So far, all of the pieces I'm familiar with are recorded in a key a semitone low. So: impossible to play along with, either for practice or for fun. But more importantly, those pieces are played with zero feel or finesse (for example, the Prelude in C major, or Petzold's Minuet in G). Yes, that's partly because of the (stubborn, presumably) decision to use harpsichord rather than piano. But the marketing matter here makes one to understand that this collection preferred modern instruments over period ones. Very disappointing so far.Also, a couple of the pieces have strange, unmusical tempo fluctuations or too-frequent pauses that don't accentuate anything; they just feel like mistakes, and they disrupt the flow. I was taught to use pauses at significant milestones to enhance and emphasize the drama/suspense of the music (right where the dominant pedal begins, for example), not just every bar or two (which is so unpleasant and distracting).There have been a couple of moments with potential, while listening to cantatas, but not many (most of them are completely uninteresting, and interminable, at 68 CDs of cantatas). At this rate I don't think I'm going to like this box set more than 2 stars. But I have tons more to listen to; so if I change my mind then I'll change this rating.UPDATE: The organ works sound good. And at least piano is used for the Inventions and Goldberg Variations.But the Minuet III from BWV 822, what the hell is going on there with those trills/mordents on every note? I don't know what it reminds me of: a dying wasp, a machine going wrong, a CD skipping, the binary squeal from some kind of acoustic modem, or one of those speech games where you insert an extra sound into each syllable to make your speech incomprehensible (except to the initiated). It's just awful. Absolutely unlistenable, which is a shame, because it's a nice little composition. Bach seems to have written endless hours and hours of dull and homogeneous mud, with occasional gems shining in there. But in this collection, some of those gems are crushed and broken unnecessarily.Still 2 stars.
I**R
comprehensive bach
This set is above all else THOUGHTFUL. The organization of the entirety of Bach's corpus of work and presentation for listening is a huge task, and it has been accomplished here with dramatic success. The edition is grounded in Helmuth Rilling's complete recording of the Bach cantatas, which at 60 CD's accounts for over a third of the entire set. The approach to the cantatas, as in all of the recordings supervised by Rilling, is probing and instructive. Like Marie-Claire Alain's approach to Bach's organ music, Rilling's approach is "pedagogical," leading the listener through the dramatic edifice of Bach's compositional style. The recordings have neither the commerical glossiness of competitors, nor do they dig in with respect to stylistic turf-wars. Forces used are not period-based, but much of the new appreciation of Bach through recent scholarship has been integrated in a musical rather than pedantic or ideological fashion. The recordings, overall, strike me as very fresh. There are some sonic warts-- recordings are sometimes too closely miked-- but overall the sound is very present.The instrumental works have been divided out to a wide range of performers, but what they all seem to have in common is a commitment to foregrounding the music and expressing a deep love for Bach. I'm particularly fond, myself, of the Russian performers-- Koroliov for the Goldberg variations, Sitokevsky for the violin solo works, and Pergaminschikow for the cello suites. Some will no doubt find these recordings TOO Russian; I like especially what Pergaminschikow says in his remarks on the cello suites, that he likes to think of them being played intimately, as if the performer were alone with the music. For my, Robert Hill's recording of the Art of the Fugue is another highlight, blending insight into performance practice with a flexible approach to the music. The organ works are designed into individual programs that are pleasant to listen to, and the chorales are organized into a multi-disc "choral book" in which harmonized chorales are interspersed with sacred song and organ chorales, making listenable an otherwise daunting mass of Bach's musical legacy.I'll be listening to this for years to come. Having the complete corpus of work together, presented in terms of an overall vision of dedication and enthuasiasm for Bach's music gives me a sense of the whole corpus which is really sublime.The set itself is nicely designed, with two large booklets providing music and tract information. The vocalists associated with individual cantatas are only listed, however, in the "e-booklet" versions of the liner notes available via CD-Rom. I've found the CD-Rom, however, very pleasant to use. Over 5000 pages of liner notes!The set was designed in affiliation with the Bach-Akademie in Stuttgart, and in the liner notes there are many references to publications stemming from this institution, leading the listener out into the larger world of Bach scholarship.
A**D
great set
I know this will take me some time to go through at 172 CDs. I really do love J.S. Bach and added this to my collection. I already have the Bach box done by Glenn Gould which I really enjoy. and now I have the completeworks of Bach.this will take some time to go over being as large as it is. I will take my time going over this collection. I tend to take my time listening to each cd.I did go through the box to make sure everything is here, and that the disc were in excellent condition.listened to a few disc already and they sound great. so far this is a great set and looking forward to hearing more of it.doesn't mean I will stop at this set by Bach for their is others who has done the works of J.S. Bach it will be a while but I will always keep an eye out.at least during this pandemic until it ends I have plenty of time to listen to this.
P**S
A complete set of Bach which owes nothing to historically informed performance practice
I really wanted to like this set. It is comprehensive, generally uses modern instruments and is well recorded. The snag is that it is so dreadfully earnest. If you see Bach as a very serious German church cantor then this set will be ideal for you. Snag is that nowadays it is better to see him as the father of seventeen children who had a sense of humour as evidenced by some of his secular cantatas. And that doesn’t really come across in this set. To see what I mean sample Edward Adwell’s interpretation of the French Suites. Every note is there but they seem almost too scholarly in his approach.To be fair the cantatas under Rilling are magnificentI don’t regret buying this box and I have so far only scratched the surface and listened to a few CDs, mainly the keyboard works.One other minor complaint. It would have been nice if details of the performers had been included in the tracklist booklet. I know that they are probably on the cd rom but not all of us have laptops in these days of tablets
R**K
If you ever want to hear sunshine!
The Bachakademie-Edition, Stuttgart together with Hanssler published this set of complete recordings of JS Bach in the year 2000 (250 years after his life). I had purchased some individual CDs from the set several years ago, (the individual CDs were £16 or around full price) but when this offer came out to purchase the whole set at less than £1 per CD I snatched it! Well, it arrived today, and I can't stop listening! The Cantatas are stellar! I have all Glenn Gould's recordings, Helmut Walcha's, and Karl Richter's 75 Cantatas and several other hundred CDs and recordings of Bach. I have some amazing Bach recordings, but there are none that top these! These are glorious modern instrument performances, thank goodness. I would say they are exactly in the style of Karl Richter and the Bach Munich Orchestra. However, technically they continue where Karl Richter left off. The recordings are digital and better quality, because they are more recent. The playing is perhaps slightly lighter.. the orchestral accompaniments to the cantatas are magnificent... staccato is sprightly played, trumpets soar with clarity and purity, and the singing is unquestionably World Class. Energy and joy radiate from these performances. In short, I don't see how any Bach followers can afford not to have Helmut Rilling's outstanding set. Obviously, I'd say if you are into Historic Instrument Performances, avoid it. However, the tide is turning; finally we can hear Bach played with the full benefit of modern day technology (both in the playing and recording) in all its glory. I have a strong feeling that this fulfilling investment will go down as one of the best purchases of my life.. I'll certainly be listening to it for the rest of my life. Long live JS Bach! I cannot recommend this set strongly enough! Get it and forget everything else!
A**G
The recordings are good but ..
OK I have listed to about 20 cds across the set. The sound is good. I am not a Bach expert so I do not offer a view on the recordings. However, for a set at this price you would expect that the cds would be in plain white sticky envelopes. Yes, just like the ones you used to find when purchasing software. No colour coding, all white so guess where about one set of recordings stops and another starts. Also, every time you need to unstick and then stick again the envelope. Really the company producing them could not get printed card envelopes!!!
B**E
Incredible set for under £50
Others are more qualified than I to give detailed comments on performance etc - but just to note for £47 (with free postage) for 172 CDs covering Bach's work under a well respected conductor with a booklet of almost 300 pages listing the tracks together a CD-ROM giving fuller details is an incredible bargain. I must admit it is difficult to see how Amazon can be making any profit on this - but I shall sit down now and enjoy the performances.
S**H
Rilling is excellent.
Best complete Bach set. Excellent and varied performances of the Cantatas! And with modern instruments. None of these scratchy, frantic musically correct period instruments performances, favoured by so called experts!!
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