Reviews

‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre’ and ‘Nicolas Clérambault’ reviewed in Early Music

September 2020 – Reviews

David Chung reviewed our CDs ‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ and ‘Nicolas Clérambault: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ for Early Music

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‘Biber: the Joyful Mysteries’ reviewed in The Clitheroe Advertiser and Times

December 2019 – Reviews

Our concert of Biber’s Joyful Mysteries was reviewed in The Clitheroe Advertiser and Times

The review is here.

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‘Nicolas Clérambault: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ reviewed on Pizzicato

November 2019 – Reviews

Remy Franck reviewed our CD ‘Nicolas Clérambault: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ for Pizzicato

Klangliche Frische
Ein weiteres Programm mit Kammermusik aus der Sammlung Brossard spielen die Bach Players auf einer neuen Coviello-CD: es sind Werke von Nicolas Clérambault (1676–1749), die thematisch reich sind und dazu auch noch sehr expressiv.

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‘Nicolas Clérambault: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ reviewed in Early Music Review

November 2019 – Reviews

David Hansell reviewed our CD ‘Nicolas Clérambault: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ in Early Music Review

This disc is a further exploration by the ensemble of Sébastien de Brossard’s library, their previous release having presented music by Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. Here, we are offered instrumental music by Clérambault,

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‘A Musical Offering’ reviewed on Latest Brighton

November 2019 – Reviews

Andrew Connal wrote about our concert in the Brighton Early Music Festival at St Paul’s Church, Brighton, 3 November 2019, on Latest Brighton. He gave it 5 stars.

You can always trust Bach to fill a venue. When his work is being interpreted by some of the leading exponents in baroque performance you can be sure of a musical treat.

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‘Musical offering’ reviewed in Early Music

September 2019 – Reviews

Daniel Bangert reviewed our CD ‘Musical offering’ for Early Music

‘Johann Sebastian Bach / Dieterich Buxtehude: Musical offering’ is a release from the Bach Players: Marion Moonen (flute), Nicolette Moonen (violin), Reiko Ichise (viola da gamba) and Silas Wollston (harpsichord). Bach’s Musical Offering is enigmatic in several respects,

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‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ reviewed in Toccata

August 2019 – Reviews

Johan van Veen reviewed our CD ‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ for Toccata

Das wachsende Interesse am italienischen Stil hatte seinen Ursprung im späten 17. Jahrhundert. François Couperin und Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre waren die ersten, die sich mit dem Genre der Triosonate,

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‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ reviewed in The Strad

June 2019 – Reviews

Robin Stowell reviewed our CD ‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ in The Strad

This disc is the first of a projected series devoted to French composers of the time of Louis XIV. Featuring works by Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729),

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‘Bach and before’ reviewed in Early Music

June 2019 – Reviews

Kevin Sutton reviewed our CD ‘Bach and before’ for Early Music

Leipzig’s Thomaskirche had had a long history of illustrious music directors (called Kantoren, or cantors) before Bach took the reins in 1723. Bach and before by the Bach Players surveys about a century and a quarter’s worth of music from four prominent composers,

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‘Bach and his rivals’ reviewed in Early Music

June 2019 – Reviews

Kevin Sutton reviewed our CD ‘Bach and his rivals’ for Early Music

In another fine outing by the Bach Players, we are treated to music by the competition, as it were. As Hugh Wood and Stephen Pedder point out in their thorough liner notes to ‘Bach and before: cantatas for audition at Leipzig,

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‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ reviewed in Gramophone

May 2019 – Reviews

Lindsay Kemp reviewed our CD ‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ in Gramophone

The trios make up the most interesting part of the recording – robustly made music in which Jacquet de La Guerre shows her fertile melodic imagination and harmonic depth,

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‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ reviewed on MusicWeb International

April 2019 – Reviews

Johan van Veen reviewed our CD ‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ for MusicWeb International

François Couperin is generally considered one of the first French composers to write in the Italian style. However, when he composed his first trio sonatas in 1692,

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‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ reviewed in Early Music Review

December 2018 – Reviews

Noel O’Regan reviewed our CD ‘Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: chamber music from the Brossard Collection’ in Early Music Review, giving it 5 out of 5 stars

Jacquet de La Guerre has become well-known to us as a composer of harpsichord music but this recording of six trio and solo sonatas by The Bach Players is a real revelation.

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‘Bach and before’ reviewed in Bach Magazin

June 2018 – Reviews

Matthias Hengelbrock reviewed our CD ‘Bach Magazin’ for Bach Magazin, the publication of the Bach-Archiv, Leipzig

Crowning of a cycle

The last-but-one CD of The Bach Players was reviewed in Bach Magazin 30, and now the circle is complete.

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‘Bach and before’ reviewed in Scherzo

May 2018 – Reviews

Mariano Acero Ruilópez reviewed our CD ‘Bach and before’ for Scherzo

Bach and his predecessors. It is not a bad idea to place Johann Sebastian Bach in the line – not a continuous line, Michael and Knüpfer are missing – of those who preceded him as Cantor at St Thomas’s Leipzig.

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‘Bach and before’ reviewed in Gramophone

February 2018 – Reviews

Lindsay Kemp reviewed our CD ‘Bach and before’ in Gramophone

As ever The Bach Players have devised a programme to get you listening with fresh ears, in this case to cantatas by four different holders of the post of Leipzig’s Thomaskantor, passing in chronological order from Johann Hermann Schein,

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‘Musical offering’ reviewed in Amadeus

December 2017 – Reviews

Massimo Rolando Zegna reviewed our CD ‘Musical offering’ for Amadeus

The Bach Players è un gruppo che ha sede a Londra: fondato nel 1996 dalla violinista Nicolette Moonen si dedica alla musica barocca, con una particolare attenzione a Bach. Dal 2008 ha iniziato a pubblicare dischi in cui viene di volta in volta approfondito un certo argomento musicale (Bach arranging and arranged,

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‘Sound the trumpet!’ reviewed in Early Music Today

December 2017 – Reviews

Rick Jones wrote about our concert at St John’s Downshire Hill, 7 October 2017, for Early Music Today

To celebrate 20 years of phenomenal success, the Bach Players performed an emotional all-Bach programme at their two favoured venues in October. Led by Dutch violinist Nicolette Moonen,

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‘Biber: the Joyful Mysteries’ reviewed in The Tablet

December 2017 – Reviews

Rick Jones wrote about our concert at St Dominic’s Priory, 2 December 2017, for The Tablet

Heinrich Biber’s Rosary Sonatas were composed some time between 1670 and 1704, the years when the composer was music director to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Austria. They are also called the Mystery Sonatas after the sacred mysteries of the Rosary (Joyful,

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‘Musical offering’ reviewed in Bach Magazin

December 2017 – Reviews

Matthias Hengelbrock reviewed our CD ‘Musical offering’ for Bach Magazin, the publication of the Bach-Archiv, Leipzig

In their series of recordings – now grown to eleven CDs – The Bach Players illuminate the musical and historical context of Bach’s music. In this case the Musical offering is combined with a trio sonata by Buxtehude,

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‘The Food of Love’ reviewed on the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies website

November 2017 – Reviews

Michael Graham wrote about our concert at the Georgian Concert Society, 14 October 2017, for the website of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, here

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‘Musical offering’ reviewed in Early Music Review

June 2017 – Reviews

David Stancliffe reviewed our CD ‘Musical offering’ in Early Music Review, giving it 5 stars overall (out of 5 stars). He writes as follows:

This is a first-rate performance of a late and intriguing work that is under-performed. There is a CD by Ton Koopman from 2009 and a more recent one by Ricercar in 2015,

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‘Musical offering’ reviewed on Musicalifeiten

June 2017 – Reviews

Jan de Kruiff has reviewed our CD ‘Musical offering’ on his website, Musicalifeiten.

He writes in conclusion:

The result is nicely lucid and clear, and provides an experience of intimate chamber music. … a version that offers a fresh, interesting alternative.

Jan de Kruiff,

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‘Musical offering’ reviewed on Record Review

June 2017 – Reviews

Andrew McGregor reviewed our CD ‘Musical offering’ for BBC Radio 3’s Record Review:

The Bach Players … using the Musical offering as the centrepiece of their latest contextual exploration of the music of Bach, alternating trio sonata textures with solo harpsichord, and prefacing Bach’s music with a wonderful D minor sonata by Bach’s idol,

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‘Sleepers awake!’ reviewed in Klassieke Zaken

March 2017 – Reviews

Marcel Bijlo reviewed our CD ‘Sleepers awake!’ in Klassieke Zaken. He writes as follows (in our translation from his Dutch text):

The Bach Players is a British ensemble dedicated, since its foundation in 1996, to the music – of course – of J.S. Bach. It is the aim of the group,

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‘Sleepers awake!’ reviewed in Gramophone

January 2017 – Reviews

Lindsay Kemp reviewed our CD ‘Sleepers awake!’ in Gramophone.

The latest disc from The Bach Players, based as usual on one of their London concert programmes, brings together three cantata settings based on the chorale Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme – two by Buxtehude and Bach’s familiar Cantata No 140.

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‘Sleepers awake!’ reviewed on Record Review

January 2017 – Reviews

Andrew McGregor reviewed our CD ‘Sleeper’s awake!’ for BBC Radio 3’s Record Review:

… The Bach Players, directed by Nicolette Moonen, who have had the fine idea of preceding Bach’s cantata ‘Wachet auf’ with his great predecessor Dieterich Buxtehude’s settings of the same text.

It’s the latest in the Bach Players’ excellent series exploring Bach in different contexts.

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‘Coffee and Cabbage’ reviewed in Early Music Today

December 2016 – Reviews

Rick Jones wrote about our concert at St John’s Downshire Hill, 8 October 2016, for Early Music Today

The much loved Bach Players performed their latest concert programme ‘Coffee and Cabbage’ at concerts in Norwich and London in October. They played one well-known and three unfamiliar Bach works,

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‘Sleepers awake!’ reviewed in Early Music Review

November 2016 – Reviews

David Stancliffe reviewed our CD ‘Sleepers awake!’ in Early Music Review, giving it 4.5 stars overall (out of 5 stars). He writes as follows:

As well as the iconic BWV 140, this CD has two cantatas by Buxtehude on the chorale Wachet auf (BuxWV 101 and 100),

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Bach Players: Octagon Chapel, Norwich

October 2016 – Reviews

Frank Cliff wrote about our Octagon Chapel concert, 6 October 2016, for the Eastern Daily Press

The recital by The Bach Players, always a high point in Norwich musical life, was unusual in that one would not normally expect the dominant factor of a programme of music by J.S.

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‘Venice to Hamburg’ reviewed on MusicWeb International

August 2016 – Reviews

Johan van Veen reviewed our CD ‘Venice to Hamburg’ for the MusicWeb International website

After a discussion of the music, he writes:

This programme is a most interesting and revealing documentation of the changes in instrumental composing during the 17th century. The booklet includes an informative essay by Gawain Glenton with an overview of the developments in musical style and some specifics about the composers and the pieces chosen for this recording.

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‘Venice to Hamburg’ reviewed in Early Music Today

July 2016 – Reviews

Nicholas Anderson reviewed (with five stars) our CD ‘Venice to Hamburg’ for Early Music Today.

The Bach Players are distinctive for their stylish playing, their imaginative programme ideas and for the eyecatching designs of their packaging. This new release, whose title, is – coincidentally – an apposite companion to the disc of sonatas by Johann Michael Nicolai and others played by Passamezzo Moderno and reviewed in these pages.

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‘Venice to Hamburg’ reviewed on Music Frames

June 2016 – Reviews

Mattie Poels reviewed our CD ‘Venice to Hamburg’ on his blog Music Frames

In 1977 The Early Music Consort of London (led by David Munrow) released the LP ‘Monteverdi’s contemporaries’. A legendary album with works by unknown contemporaries of Claudio Monteverdi, who had composed captivating music that had until then remained unknown.

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‘Venice to Hamburg’ reviewed on Concertzender

June 2016 – Reviews

Kees Koudstaal is a CD-shop owner, concert promoter, and now has a radio programme on the Concertzender radio channel. On 5 June he played a track from our ‘Venice to London’ CD. He also tells the story of how he got to know about The Bach Players. Listen here (from 44:38).

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‘Venice to Hamburg’ reviewed in Early Music Review

May 2016 – Reviews

The first review of ‘Venice to Hamburg’ has just been published, in Early Music Review. D. James Ross gave five stars to every aspect of the CD. He writes as follows:

The Bach Players take us on a fascinating tour of the back streets and byways of Baroque music in this engaging CD,

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The Bach Players at The Octagon Chapel

March 2016 – Reviews

Christopher Smith wrote about our Octagon Chapel concert, 3 March 2016, for the Eastern Daily Press.

Welcome back in Norwich again. Nicolette Moonen’s Bach Players performed fascinating and largely unfamiliar music in a delightfully intimate style. With the title Laments for Passiontide, the recital was naturally serious,

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‘Bach and his rivals’ reviewed in Early Music Today

December 2015 – Reviews

Adrian Horsewood reviewed our CD ‘Bach and his rivals’ for Early Music Today. He gave it five stars out of five.

The unforeseeable consequences a seemingly small decision can entail have long been the subject of historical discussion: Pascal famously remarked that ‘if Cleopatra’s nose had been shorter,

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‘Bach and his rivals’ reviewed in the Netherlands

November 2015 – Reviews

Thanks to the work of our distributor New Arts International, we have been receiving more reviews of our CDs in the Netherlands.

On the Opus Klassiek website, Siebe Riedstra writes about Bach and his rivals here. His conclusion runs as follows:

In summary,

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French chamber music

June 2015 – Reviews

In a review round-up in the journal ‘Early Music’, with the title ‘French chamber music’, Graham Sadler wrote about two of our CDs of French music.

Elements of the two national traditions are nicely juxtaposed on a disc entitled Italy versus France,

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The Bach Players at Hatchlands

June 2015 – Reviews

David Hansell wrote about our Hatchlands concert, 7 May 2015, for Early Music Review.

Awful though the fire at nearby Clandon Park House was, the musical world will have been relieved that it wasn’t at Hatchlands, where the spectacular Cobbe Collection of keyboard instruments continues to be in use for demonstrations and concerts.

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London’s Baroque Festival highlights the music of Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

May 2015 – Reviews

Nahoko Gotoh has reviewed our Jacquet de La Guerre concert.

The review is here

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‘An Italian in Paris’ reviewed in Early Music Today

December 2014 – Reviews

Nicholas Anderson reviewed our CD ‘An Italian in Paris’ for Early Music Today. He gave it five stars out of five, and the disc is also named as the editor’s choice for this issue.

With its thoughtfully imaginative programming, the high quality of its performances, and its distinctive packaging,

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‘Bach’s library’ reviewed in Early Music Today

December 2014 – Reviews

Nicholas Anderson reviewed our CD ’Bach’s library’ for Early Music Today. He gave it five stars out of five.

The full contents of J.S. Bach’s library – like the personality of the composer himself – remain a matter for conjecture. Nevertheless, we do know some of what he possessed and valued.

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‘An Italian in Paris’ reviewed in International Record Review

October 2014 – Reviews

Christopher Price reviewed our CD ‘An Italian in Paris’ for International Record Review.

Given the particular interest of their founder director, Dutch-French Baroque violinist Nicolette Moonen, in the French Baroque, it is natural that the focus of The Bach Players has expanded beyond their original object of the Leipzig master and his circle.

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‘An Italian in Paris’ reviewed in Early Music Review

June 2014 – Reviews

Noel O’Regan reviewed our CD ‘An Italian in Paris’ for Early Music Review.

This is a fascinating collection of music, composed largely by French composers but under Italian stylistic influence and exploiting the sound of the violin both on its own and in a duo. It starts with Couperin’s La Pucelle,

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‘Bach’s library’ reviewed in Gramophone

June 2013 – Reviews

Lindsay Kemp reviewed our CD ‘Bach’s library’ for Gramophone.

As with all the Bach Players’ recordings to date (this is their sixth), this one has its origins in a concert, and has the intelligent programme planning to prove it. ‘Bach’s Library’ is just what it says it is;

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Review of our first four CDs

May 2013 – Reviews

We have just caught up with this review of our first four CDs on the Dutch Opus Klassiek website, by Siebe Riedstra. He really gets what we have been aiming for with our recordings. We give an English translation below.

One of the most fascinating results of the crumbling of the ‘music industry’ is the weeds that pop up everywhere between the paving stones.

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The Bach Players reviewed in Concerto

May 2013 – Reviews

Thumbing through old reviews, we found this short retrospective piece from 2013 in ‘Concerto’, the authoritative Early Music magazine published from Cologne. The review by Bernd Heyder, one of ’Concerto’’s co-editors, was prompted by our Pachelbel and Bach CD, and looks back to the two earlier CDs that we based on Bach’s cantatas: Every one a chaconne and Nun komm!

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‘Bach’s library’ reviewed on CD Review

April 2013 – Reviews

Andrew McGregor reviewed our CD ‘Bach’s library’ for BBC Radio 3’s CD Review.

[on Johann Berhard Bach] charming music elegantly performed by The Bach Players … a lively performance of Bach’s B minor flute suite … This series of contextual explorations by The Bach Players has been consistently interesting and engaging.

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‘Bach’s library’ reviewed in Early Music Review

April 2013 – Reviews

David Hansell reviewed our CD ‘Bach’s library’ for Early Music Review.

… this is an exemplary release. Graham Sadler’s note both explains the rationale of the programme and draws attention to notable musical details, and the lively performances back him up. I applaud with some relief the either/or decision with regard to the use of harpsichord and theorbo for the continuo and the one-to-a-part performances of the ‘orchestral’ items emphasise the absolute validity of this approach and sonority.

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‘Pachelbel and Bach’ reviewed in Luister

August 2012 – Reviews

Gerard Scheltens has reviewed our CD ‘Pachelbel and Bach’ for Luister magazine. His review came with a maximum of ten stars: five for the quality of performance and five for the quality of recording .

Johann Pachelbel’s famous Canon in D – at some stage violated into a super-sweet pop song by a singer whose name I hope to forget – is here embedded in a meaningful context.

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‘Pachelbel and Bach’ reviewed in Early Music Today

August 2012 – Reviews

Adrian Horsewood has reviewed our CD ‘Pachelbel and Bach’ for Early Music Today.

The Bach Players can notch up yet another resounding success in their ever inventive explorations of Johann Sebastian by juxtaposing works by other composers. Pachelbel’s ubiquitous Canon does rear its head (although shorn of its delightful companion Gigue),

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‘Pachelbel and Bach’ reviewed in IRR

June 2012 – Reviews

Nicholas Anderson has reviewed our CD ‘Pachelbel and Bach’ for International Record Review.

… What is certainly achieved here is an admirable translucency which is present in both the vocal and instrumental strands. Perhaps what I am enjoying even more than anything else, though, is mezzo Sally Bruce-Payne’s beautiful performance of ‘Widerstehe doch der Sünde’.

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The Bach Players give moving tribute to Gustav Leonhardt

April 2012 – Reviews

Nahoko Gotoh has reviewed our Leonhardt memorial concert.

The review is here.

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‘Italy versus France’ reviewed on Muse Baroque

February 2012 – Reviews

Sébastien Holzbauer has reviewed our CD ‘Italy versus France’ for the Muse Baroque website.

The review is here.

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‘Nun komm!’ reviewed in Early Music

October 2011 – Reviews

David Black reviewed our CD ‘Nun komm!’ for Early Music.

‘Nun komm! French overtures by German composers’ is a recent release from The Bach Players, a London group previously unknown to me. The line-up shows many familiar names, as so often with early music ensembles. Again there are single voices and single strings to a part.

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‘Italy versus France’ reviewed in IRR

May 2011 – Reviews

Simon Heighes has reviewed our CD ‘Italy versus France’ for International Record Review.

Ah, the winds of fashion, how they do blow hot and cold. On the catwalks today we raise an appreciative eyebrow for Chanel (such timeless, understated elegance), while arching the other at Gucci (vulgar,

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‘Nun komm!’ reviewed in Gramophone

December 2010 – Reviews

Richard Lawrence has reviewed our CD ‘Nun komm!’ for Gramophone.

This is an admirable recording: intelligently conceived and well performed. Both cantatas open with a chorus in the shape of a French overture: in no. 61 it’s the slow introduction that incorporates phrases of the chorale,

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Pachelbel and Bach in Norwich and London

December 2010 – Reviews

These reviews by Clifford Bartlett and Hugh Keyte, of our ‘Pachelbel and Bach’ (part 1) concerts in Norwich and London, are among the most perceptive as well as appreciative that we have had. They show the gains that can come when performances of the same music in two venues are compared,

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‘Nun komm!’ reviewed in IRR

November 2010 – Reviews

Marc Rochester reviewed our CD ‘Nun komm!’ for International Record Review.

You need not check out their website (which includes an endearing collage of photographs of the musicians with Bach himself embedded near the middle, the only colour portrait in a sea of black and white) to know that The Bach Players ‘is a collective of like-minded musicians who are drawn together by their passion for the music of J.S.

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‘Every one a chaconne’ reviewed in Classic FM magagazine

January 2010 – Reviews

A.S. has reviewed our CD ‘Every one a chaconne’ for Classic FM magazine.

There’s something about the openness of sound, the sheer quality of music-making and the sense of connection between performers and composers that makes this a very special recording. Its contents explore the world of the Baroque chaconne,

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‘Nun komm!’ in Norwich reviewed on Bright Cecilia

November 2009 – Reviews

The Bright Cecilia forum has published a vivid review of our Norwich concert.

The review is [here]

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‘Rendezvous in Vienna’ in Norwich

September 2009 – Reviews

This review of our Norwich concert, September 2009, was published in the Eastern Daily Press.

There are growing links between the Players and King of Hearts and their concert on Saturday was as outstanding in performance as it was relaxed in its presentation.

But in a programme devoted to the links between Haydn,

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‘Bach arranging and arranged’ reviewed in Classic FM magazine

March 2009 – Reviews

R.J. has reviewed our CD ‘Bach arranging and arranged’ for Classic FM magazine.

The quartet, hived off from the sensitive period strings of The Bach Players, performs with warm expressivity nine fugues from Bach’s 48 as set by Mozart, who showed his genius in recognising that of another.

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‘Bach arranging and arranged’ reviewed in IRR

February 2009 – Reviews

Nicholas Anderson reviewed our CD ‘Bach arranging and arranged’ for International Record Review.

The main piece in this interesting programme is Bach’s own arrangement, or parody of Pergolesi’s celebrated Stabat Mater for soprano and alto voices with strings and continuo. Pergolesi completed it in 1735, shortly before his death in the following year,

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London concerts

February 2008 – Reviews

Andrew Benson-Wilson wrote about our London concert, November 2007, for Early Music Review.

One group that has always impressed me is The Bach Players, directed (if that is the right word) with commendable reticence by violinist Nicolette Moonen. Their concerts always strike me as a gathering of friends,

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Bach to basics on fine night of music

December 2005 – Reviews

Martin Dreyer’s review of our York concert, December 2005, was published in the Birmingham Post.

The Victorians were to blame for bringing all the tinsel and trappings into Christmas. Back in the Baroque, none of those fripperies applied. The Bach Players – essentially a string quintet with organ,

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Warwick Early Music Showcase

December 2004 – Reviews

Andrew Benson-Wilson wrote about our Warwick concert, September 2004, for Early Music Review.

… Finally, as a digestive after a weekend of heavy feasting, came The Bach Players performing extracts from the Art of Fugue. This was an excellent example of just how subtle and expressive string playing can be.

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Bach and friends

May 2004 – Reviews

Andrew Benson-Wilson wrote about our London concert, March 2004, for Early Music Review.

As their name implies, The Bach Players specialise in the performance of J.S. Bach, and their concert (St James Piccadilly, 5 March) included three Lenten cantatas and movements from the Art of Fugue.

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Riches galore from J.S. Bach

March 2004 – Reviews

Christopher Morley’s review of our Birmingham concert, March 2004, was published in the Birmingham Post.

More than a quarter of a millennium since the composer’s death, there are still riches galore to be mined in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Not so long ago the idea of Bach in ‘period’ performance would evoke precious,

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Bach as a twenty-something

March 2004 – Reviews

Roderic Dunnett’s review of our Birmingham concert, March 2004, was published in the Church Times.

Although many of his finest cantatas, like the Passions, date from Bach’s quarter-century at St Thomas’s, Leipzig (1723–50), and his organ music mostly predates the move, this rule is not absolute.

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Early music review

December 1999 – Reviews

This review of our London concert, November 1999, was published in Early Music Review

One of the most promising new groups over the last few years has been the Bach Players, founded in 1996 and dedicated to the music of Bach. A London highlight has been their exploration of Bach cantatas,

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Bachs Passion als ‘work in progress’

July 1999 – Reviews

This review of our St John Passion in Berlin was published in the Berliner Morgenpost, 6 July 1999.

Schon zu Beginn feierten die Bachtage ihren ersten Hohepunkt. The Bach Players aus London gaben ihr Deutschland-Debüt: ein junges, vor drei Jahren gegründetes Ensemble, das sich ganz auf den Thomaskantor spezialisiert hat.

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Die Kirche im Dorf

July 1999 – Reviews

This review of our St John Passion in Berlin was published in the Die Welt, 5 July 1999.

Nicht alles besser, aber vieles anders machen: so, in Umkehrung des bekannten Schlagworts, ist das Bestreben heutiger ‘historischer’ Aufführungspraxis. Kleine Besetzungen eröffnen bei Bachs Passionen neue Aspekte. Es ist,

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London music

July 1998 – Reviews

Andrew Benson-Wilson wrote about our London concert, May 1998, for Early Music Review.

The Bach Players, formed early in 1996, are dedicated to the performance of their eponymous composer. They presented wonderfully musical performances of three cantatas (56, 57, 58), with Rachel Elliott and Thomas Guthrie as soloists,

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Full Review archive.

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