I had never heard Carolyn Sampson before I stumbled upon a recording of her and the Bach Collegium Japan performing Bach’s Cantata “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen”, BWV 51. In all honesty, I was only looking to build my library of cantatas, and decided to give the BCJ a lookup on eMusic. And through some miracle, I came across Carolyn Sampson in the process.

We are all familier with the operatic, incessantly trembling soprano sound. It’s as though all that vibrato is trying to hide the fact that they don’t really know what damn note they’re singing. If you despise that sound, then you will fall in love with Sampson’s beautiful, pure, lyrical tone. She never over-interprets Bach, yet her interpretive choices are wisely made and executed. She is the refined baroque soprano that many have been waiting for since the boom of period recordings in the 1980s.

She’s not just a great interpreter. Her technique is nearly flawless. Her voice is one of the closest to sounding like another instrument in the ensemble that I’ve ever heard. Intonation is spot on, and she tackles massive vocal runs like Barack Obama tackles a California primary: child’s play.

You shouldn’t, however, take the word of a humble blogger for it: go check it out yourself. The recording is available on eMusic, along with several other recordings of Sampson. If you want to hear a fresh new sound in Bach, this one is a must:

Click to be brough to the eMusic download page.

Posted in Recording Review Tagged: bach, bach collegium japan, baroque, cantata, carolyn sampson, soprano, suzuki ]]> http://creativeseminole.com/2009/04/09/carolyn-sampson-bach-collegium-japan/feed/ 0 Zach Bach Collegium Japan, Vol 30 http://creativeseminole.com/2009/02/24/simone-dinnerstein/ http://creativeseminole.com/2009/02/24/simone-dinnerstein/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:54:06 +0000 Zachary http://zacharygoldstein.wordpress.com/?p=28 Continue reading →]]> There are about as many new pianists as there are new species of plants and animals being discovered.  And then there are the Simone Dinnersteins.

I first heard about Simone Dinnerstein on the “recommended for you” section of my eMusic welcome page. I had recently had a hankering for some Bach keyboard works, and as fate would have it, her recording of the old guy’s Fifth French Suite popped up. “Who is this?” I thought to myself. I had never heard of her before, and after reading her bio it didn’t take long for me to realize why, or why I should have every recording she’s made.

There are very few people in the world of classical music as perseverant and tenacious as Dinnerstein.  Like any other classical pianist in the lot of them all, she’s had a critically acclaimed recording made of the standard repertoire and a début at Carnegie Hall. Unlike other classical pianists, she recorded and raised the funds for her concert - in her spare time from being a piano teacher – by herself. 

That’s not why you should listen to her though. You should listen to her because her interpretations of Bach’s music are among the freshest available. She performed tonight at Opperman Music Hall, with a program culminating in a performance of the Bach Fifth Suite. From the first note of the allemande, I sensed that something was different, even from the recording; by the time she’d finished the last strain of her flowing and energetic gigue, I was convinced that no other pianist I’d heard showed such an ability to interpret Bach’s music in such a personal yet refined way. And to speak of her technique, she’s not exactly lacking: her agility is only matched by her attention and sensitivity to style.

Between her ability to fund her way to the top of the classical music world and then have the musicianship to stay there, Simone Dinnerstein is certainly a pianists that you will want to listen to. After having heard this phenomenal pianist live, I know that her recording and interpretation of the Bach suite will stay in my favorites for quite some time.