As I have remarked before in this blog, recording quality and balance are often highly influenced by one's playback equipment. What sounds unsatisfactory via speakers, can often sound a lot better through headphones. I once drove a salesman to despair when I wanted to replace my speakers around a decade ago. I played my test CD through speaker after proposed speaker, with the salesman exclaiming “just listen to that bass!” But I wasn't too concerned about the bass sound, since so much of my listening is to violin music, and I was more interested in the feeble treble that came over. After many changes, I left without buying anything at that establishment.
I am currently diving back into my CD archives. Having gone through innumerable Bach cantatas as recorded by Suzuki and by Herreweghe, I am now on to innumerable Bach cantatas as recorded by Sigiswald Kuijken and his La Petite Bande. Balancing Bach cantatas is a problem, with the small orchestra, soloists and a choir all vying for attention. Too often — most noticeably with Suzuki — the recording emphasis favours the solo voices, with the orchestra in the background. Not so with Kuijken, and I am sure Bach would be happy to hear the band playing loud and clear, since Bach's vocal soloists are said often to have been a mixed bag, and Bach devoted much of his compositional skills to making sure the band was doing interesting things. The Kuijken recordings date from the period 2006-11. Unlike Suzuki and Herreweghe, he does not use a choir, but gives the choral work to the four soloists. I don't mind this in Bach cantatas, since I am not a fan of choirs and choral music. Kuijken also favours female altos, rather than males, and I nod approvingly. Male altos usually get up my nose. Suzuki, Herreweghe and Kuijken recorded dozens of Bach cantatas over more than a decade, with changing soloists. There is no "best buy", as so often, but I am grateful to have so many Bach cantatas recorded by all three men.
Also from my archives, I am re-listening with great pleasure to Wilhelm Backhaus playing five Beethoven piano sonatas. This is the kind of piano playing I enjoy; Backhaus was a formidable technician, but his playing draws attention to the music, and not to the star pianist. In this, Igor Levit somewhat resembles Backhaus; my kind of piano playing. I am not a great fan of the Beethoven piano sonatas, and listen to them rarely. When I do listen, I like them played by no-nonsense Backhaus or Levit.
Next off on my archive re-listening will be the violinist Katrin Scholz; not a household name, but a superb violinist.
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