All just my personal opinion
Media Review — J.S. Bach: The Sonatas for Viola da gamba, BWV 1027 – 1029: Jordi Savall / Ton Koopman (1977), Anner Bylsma / Bob van Asperen (1990); Lucile Boulanger / Arnaud De Pasquale (2011); includes “collateral” reviews of works included with the aforementioned CDs, such as J.C.F. Bach’s Sonata in A major, J.S. Bach’s violin sonata BWV 1023, and the Toccata No.2 in C minor, BWV 911
Blog post #650 — #rolfsmblog •
Bach: Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971 — Walter Gieseking (1940), Wanda Landowska (1933), Gustav Leonhardt (1965), Andreas Staier (1993), Ton Koopman (1986), Christophe Rousset (1990);
Bach: Partita in B minor, BWV 831, “French Overture” — Walter Gieseking (1950), Glenn Gould (1970), Christophe Rousset (1990), Andreas Staier (1993)
Bach: 4 Duets, BWV 802-805 — Ton Koopman, Christophe Rousset; Bach: Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, BWV 903 — Wanda Landowska (1933), Andreas Staier (1988), Christophe Rousset (1990), Ton Koopman (1986)
(…) there isn’t such a thing as “objective” judgement / rating in classical music, for many reasons: How people listen to music, how music “works on them”, what specifically they like about music, which kind of music they like, which / what type of musical expression “goes straight to their heart”, causes them to get goose bumps…
Back in the “vinyl days”, comparing various interpretations was cumbersome, even if one had access to multiple turntables (…): if you didn’t want to listen to entire interpretations, one after each other (making it hard to remember all details from interpretations just heard), you were bound to have multiple LPs ready in their sleeves, place them on a turntable, position the needle…
(…) in the mid-90’s I could not resist following a colleague’s recommendation to visit Tower Records in Mountain View (a shop that has since gone out of business) when I was on a business trip to the Silicon Valley, and so I started purchasing CDs. Of course, unlike when I started collecting LPs, I now had a better idea what to look for…