Bach – Sonata No. 3 in D minor — Netherlands Bach Society

Bach – Sonata No. 3 in D minor BWV 527 – Havinga
Netherlands Bach Society – Jul 16, 2020 – 17:01
h/t logprof on A♠

The opening of this sonata in D minor, performed by Matthias Havinga for All of Bach, has an uncertain and emphatically andante sound. To the ears of seventeenth and eighteenth-century musicologists the key of D minor represented melancholy, devotion, solemnity and seriousness. Following this tentative start, Bach launches into experimentation, by juggling motifs almost wildly and searching for new keys.

Recorded for the project All of Bach on September 21st 2016 at the Sint-Bavokerk, Haarlem.

Jack Benny & Isaac Stern – Bach

The terrible, grainy lo-res video and buzz in the audio were distracting at first, but once they got going, I forgot all about that.

rickwebbmusic – May 16, 2011 – 6:26
h/t Hadrian on A♠: Jack Benny and Isaac Stern try to play the first movement of the Bach Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and have to call in Eugene Ormandy to sort it out.

Bach – Air (“on the G string”, string orchestra)

smalin – Feb 26, 2009 – 5:15
h/t All Hail Eris
J. S. Bach’s Air “On the G-string” from his 3rd orchestral suite in D major, BWV 1068.

I read sheet music about as well as I can speak French, but know enough that I liked following these side-by-side musical notations.

Bach – Mass in B minor BWV 232

Van Veldhoven
Netherlands Bach Society
h/t logprof on A♠
Jan 22, 2019 – 1:48:42
Sublime, extreme and all-embracing… only superlatives will do to describe Bach’s Mass in B minor, the ‘Hohe Messe’, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society for All of Bach. In between an awe-inspiring Kyrie and the jubilant final Dona nobis pacem, there are nine completely unique arias and duets, fourteen impressive ensemble sections for four, five, six and even eight voices, a broad spectrum of instrumental solos, and an incredible variety of styles.

J.S. Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D minor – Stokowski at 90

adam28xx – Mar 29, 2014 – 11:11
h/t Mary Poppins’ Practically Perfect Piercing on A♠

In 1972, Leopold Stokowski visited Prague to conduct two concerts with the Czech Philharmonic. By now a very frail 90-year-old, the Maestro’s taxing programme (played on two successive evenings) consisted of six of his Bach Transcriptions, followed after the interval by Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” and Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy,” plus a couple of encores. It was recorded ‘live’ in ‘Phase 4 Stereo’ and for the first concert the TV cameras were on hand to capture Stokowski for almost the last time in his long career.

The programme opened with his own transcription of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, a work he had first performed and recorded in the 1920s. He had played it many times over the years but this is the last film to show him conducting his most famous Bach arrangement in public.

Stokowski soon gave up concerts altogether, due to his clearly evident frailty, but continued to make records until he was 95. His final studio recording of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor was made with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1974 for RCA / BMG.