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Pinnock Bach Partitas
Posted by Paul Breslin on June 10, 2020, 9:41 pm
Dominy Clements, I have that boxed set, and what it gives you is a CD ROM with notes and texts and translations for choral and vocal pieces.
However, it's badly done. They esentially photocopied the printed booklets from the original volumes and put them on the CD ROM as pdf. files. I have not played everything in the set, but for one of the Cantatas the text suddenly broke off--they must have skipped the last page. Also, the files are identified only by volume numbers (each volume contains four CDs). So you have to pull out the CDs to figure out which volume the piece you're listening to is to be found.
Since I bought the massive, cumbersome version of this set on a closeout, it has been slimmed down to a much more attractive package. I don't know whether the notes and texts were re-edited for the new version or left as they were.
Despite such irritations, the set was a great bargain. Not all of the performandes are first-rate (the organ music, especially, performed by multiple organists on multiple instruments, is inconsistent), but most are good to outstanding.
Re: Pinnock Bach Partitas
Posted by Dominy Clements on July 9, 2020, 11:23 pm, in reply to "Pinnock Bach Partitas"
Thanks for the insights. I have one or two boxes with DVDs included, invariably bad or irrelevant or more or less annoying. These releases appearing as individual discs but without notes do have a bit of a 'fire sale' feel to then but maybe they feel these are gems people would otherwise miss, and I have liked the ones I have heard. Happy listening!