Raphaella SMITS

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NEDERLANDSE
VERSIE

PROGRAM

Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686-1750)
1. Sarabande c-major
2. Bourrée a-minor < audio sample >
3. Tombeau sur la mort de M. Cajetan Baron d'Hartig
4. Tombeau sur la mort de M. Comte d'Logy
5. Capricio d-major

Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
Works from 'Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato'
Sonata III c-major (BWV 1005):
6. Adagio
7. Fuga
Partita II d-minor (BWV 1004):
8. Ciaconna
Partita II b-minor (BWV 1002):
9. Sarabande – double
10. Tempo di Borea - double)


FEATURES

artist: Raphaella Smits, guitar
titel: Baroque Guitar Sounds
composers: Silvius Leopold Weiss and Johann Sebastian Bach
label: Accent Records, BE
CD number: ACC 93100

recorded: at the 'Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Kerk', Haarlem, NL, October 1993
instrument : 8-string guitar by John Gilbert (USA) (1980)
total duration: 65'00"
illustration: 'La Musique', portrait of Mr. de la Breteche by Jean-Honoré Fragonard


BAROQUE GUITAR SOUNDS
Raphaella Smits plays J.S. Bach and S.L. Weiss

PROGRAM
FEATURES
ABOUT THE RECORDING
WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY


ABOUT THE RECORDING

Two legendary masters appealing to our deepest feelings : Bach with an intellectual approach, Weiss as a real romantic in the baroque.

"Johann Sebastian Bach and Silvius Leopold Weiss were both German and almost exact contemporaries. They knew and appreciated each other. As performers they were without equal.

From the beginning of the 20th century guitarists such as Miguel Llobet and Andres Segovia have arranged baroque and classical works for their own instrument. Playing the 8-string guitar, the old lute repertoire can be played without having to make drastic changes to the original music.

For Bach's violin sonatas things are a little more complicated. These are difficult polyphonic works, written for an instrument that is basically not polyphonic. The music can be played straight from Bach's wonderful manuscript, with the addition of the necessary harmonies - as Bach himself used to do, and as Raphaella Smits does on this recording."
Pieter Andriessen


WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY

Jean Bernard of <Diapason> says:
"Par sa discographie rigoureuse et éclectique, Raphaella Smits s'affirme aujourd'hui parmi les interprètes les plus délicats et les plus cultivés. L'influence de José Tomàs est ici important : Raphaella Smits transcrit, phrase et ornemente avec sobriété, invention, et une mélancolie qui joue pianissimo avec le temps. ...
Comme il est plaisant d'écouter une Ciaconna vraiment phrasée comme une chaconne, légèrement inégale, ornementée avec à-propos."


Paul Fowles of the <Classical Guitar (UK)> wrote:
"Having selected some of the finest transcribable material the baroque period has to offer, Smits gives a performance in which, quite simply, she does everything right. A programme of pure excellence!"

Emma Scott of <Het Laatste Nieuws> (BE) wrote:
"Raphaella is at her best in the Tombeau's of Weiss. Timidly she pulls the melancholy from underneath the string, in a game of clair-obscure in which even the light high register has something melancholic, and the deep darkness is not without some rebellion.
She plays Bach with as much care for the perfect sound, but rather starting from a more structural understanding. The languorous gait of a Sarabande, the more pointed plucked Bourrée, the subtle differentiated episodes of the Fuga, it has all become pure guitaristic language."


Jozef Joris, honorary director of the Lemmens Institute, wrote:
"As an organ player and pianist, so familiar with J.S. Bach, I can hear him today from under your skillful fingers in a sublime interpretation. Impressive!"

Jürgen Bieler of the <Bonner Rundßchau> wrote:
"Die Gitarrenadaptation von Bachs Ciaconna ist einer neuen Erfahrung. Absolut stilsicher interpretiert klang das Werk auf angenehme Weise ungitarristisch, so als würde es jemand auf einem leisen Tasteninstrument vortragen."  


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