The Swingle Singers - Bach Hits Back ~ A Capella Amadeus
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CD Details
Edition: Music CDCD Release Date: 1998-05-05
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Ein' feste Burg - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Organ Fugue from Fantasia and fugue - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- The Well -Tempered Clavier: Prelude XVIII - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Cantata No. 140: Chorale prelude from Cantata No. 140 'Wachet Auf' - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Wachet Auf: Chorale from 'Wachet Auf' - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- In Dulci Jubilo - Chorale Prelude - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- In Dulci Jubilo - Chorale - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Andante fromSonata No. 2 for unaccompanied violin - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- First movement from Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Cantata No. 208: Schafe konnen Sicher Weiden (Sheep May Safely Graze) from Cantata No. 208 - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Badinerie from Suite No. 2 - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Fugue VIII fromThe Well-Tempered Clavier - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Three - Part Invention - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Mass In B Minor: Et Resurrexit from Mass in B minor - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Bist Du Bei Mir - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- St. Mathew Passion: Blute Nur, Du Liebes Herz - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Organ Fugue: Alla Gigue - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Suite No. 3: Air from Suite No. 3 (Air on a G String) - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Little Organ Fugue - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Cantata No. 60: Es Ist Genug from Cantata No. 60 - Johann Sebastian Bach_
- Symphony No. 40: Die Zauberflote - Overture - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Symphony No. 40: I Molto Allegro - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Symphony No. 40: II Andante - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Symphony No. 40: III Minuetto: allegretto - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Symphony No. 40: IV Finale: Allegro assai - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Ave Verum Corpus - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- String Quartet In G Major: Finale from String Quartet in G major - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Cosi fan tutte: Un' Aura Amorosa from Cost fan tutte - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Eine Kleine Nachtmusik: Finale: Rondo from Eine kleine Nachtmusik - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Finale from Horn Concerto No. 4 - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Canzonetta from Don Giovanni - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Terzettino from Cosi Fan Tutte - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Gigue - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Piano Concerto No. 21: Andante from Piano Concerto No. 21 - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Hostias from Requiem - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Requiem: Quam Olim Abrahae from Requiem - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Piano Sonata In A Major: Finale: Alla Turca from Piano Sonata in A major - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
- Fantasia In F Minor And Major - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Music reviews of The Swingle Singers - Bach Hits Back ~ A Capella Amadeus
Music Review: I prefer the Swingles when they DON'T sing
Rating: 5 Stars
OK, I hoped you'd be intrigued by the title and would read this review to find out more.
This twofer collates two CDs of the Swingle Singers published by Virgin in 1991 ("A Cappella Amadeus - A Mozart Celebration") and 1994 ("Bach Hits Back"). In fact, there is a minor mistery about the latter. Apparently 16 tracks out of the disc's 21 were published earlier, in 1990, on a seemingly self-produced CD, The Bach Album, totalling 41 minutes (if you look carefully at the cover photo of that disc you'll see that there are two tracks 8, corresponding to tracks 7 and 8 of the present CD, "In Dulci Jubilo"). Why the remaining tracks (namely tracks 5, 11, 12, 19 and 20) were not published back then but only in the 1994 Virgin reissue, I don't know. Also, the copyright of 1990 featured on that earlier disc doesn't quite stick with the recording date of V.1991 indicated on this Virgin twofer. So the mystery remains, and I'm not going to buy the earlier disc just to try and solve it.
I've reviewed a lot of recordings by the Swingle Singers lately, both the early ones from the Paris-based group in the 1960s and early 1970s (see my reviews of Jazz Sebastian Bach, Anyone For Mozart, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi?, Swingling Telemann, Getting Romantic, Concerto D Aranjuez and Les Quatre Saisons) and the later ones by the re-formed and now moved-to-London group (other than these Virgin releases, see the recent Beauty and the Beatbox). I've contended that, beyond the pleasure of any arrangement, enabling you to hear the old, familiar warhorses in a new timbral guise, the special fascination of the Swingle's arrangements and realizations derives from the fact that they elevate to the status of high art what we all do, in a very rudimentary manner and without even thinking about it, walking on the street, washing the dishes, ironing or vacuuming - and, notoriously, showering: humming our favorite tunes. But the Swingles are to our shower humming what a Picasso is to your kid's drawings. And I've also opined that by so doing, they return instrumental music to its very origin and essence: the human voice - as, presumably, all those great composers, Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Handel, Beethoven, Chopin and all the others first hummed these tunes for themselves before committing them to the music sheet.
The Mozart album is great, equal to any by the early Swingle group, with a fine choice of Mozart's great hits (Magic Flute Overture, 40th Symphony, Adagio from the 21st Piano Concerto, Turkish finale from the 11th Piano Sonata), the Swingle's customary combination of the dazzlingly virtuosic and the sensuously caressing - and, as a most welcome exception to the Swingle's frustrating rule of recording only excepts from larger works, the complete (if abridged) 40th Symphony. I'd rank the Bach album under that, though. The pieces selected aren't overall as popular hits as those of Mozart - I guess the Swingles had more or less exhausted the available Bach hits in their previous Bach albums. Moreover, I think they made a mistake in choosing to treat the excerpts from the vocal and choral pieces as precisely that: vocal and choral pieces, e.g. with the words sung, rather than "instrumentalizing" them. In some cases they just arrange and sing those as "mere" (if my ears don't deceive me) 4-part a capella choruses, as in the opening "Ein' feste Burg", the Chorale from "Wachet auf" (track 5),the song "Bist du bei mir" from Anna Magdalena's Notebook (track 16; the attribution to Bach is doubtful) or the last verse of "In Dulci Jubilo", track 8, which is in fact straight Bach, a four-part Chorale BWV 368 after the old medieval tune, here sung in the (often criticized) 19th century English translation of Pearsall. I feel that this misses the point entirely of what makes the art of the Swingle Singers so unique: precisely, vocalizing instrumental music, returning it, as I said, to its vocal essence and origin. Here, they don't sound so unique, but just like any good a capella ensemble. The Choral-prelude from "Wachet auf" (track 4), and "Sheep may safely graze" (track 11) are fortunately more elaborate and "swingling" that that, but the two exceptions to that "singing" rule are "Et Resurrexit" from the Mass in B-minor (track 15) and "Blute nur" from the St Matthew Passion (track 17), both entirely "instrumentalized", and it comes as no surprise that they are both very effective.
And here's the explanation for the provocative title of my review. Admittedly, there is also some word-singing in the Mozart album - but then, in the excerpts from the Requiem, Cosi and Don Giovanni, the Swingles also vocalize for the orchestra, so it's still typical Swingle rather than anonymous a capella, although their Ave Rerum Corpus can attract the same kind of comment. But that's only one track.
In this twofer reissue Virgin isn't very helpful either with information on the compositions. The liner notes are much shorter and not nearly as informative as on the original CDs, and no BWV numbers are given for the Bach selections, making it sometimes difficult to locate them. I had to do more than a little research to establish what exactly were tracks 7 and 8. I've indicated above what track 8 is, and as for track 7, it turns out that Virgin mislabelled it. It is not the Chorale prelude on "In dulci jubilo" - in fact Bach wrote two, BWV 729 and 751, although the latter is apparently dubious, if the excellent Wikipedia entry is to be trusted - but the Chorale (not prelude) BWV 608 (the arrangement is a little more complicated than that, but for the complete details see my review of the original Virgin release).
Whatever my misgivings, the twofer is still very attractive, especially at the cheap prices which are asked for it at the time of writing. The Mozart is great and the Bach, while not the best from the Swingles, is still very enjoyable.
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