Comments on: Eternal Baroque

By: Christopher Holm

Christopher Holm — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:49:37 +0000

Don’t let the album artwork fool you: this is not a keyboard album. Naxos took good care choosing a variety of pieces to span over 100 years and several countries. They give us a showcase of the range of what we call Baroque music. It’s all in here: sacred & secular vocal, melisma, concertos, harpsichord, pipe organ, solo work, and of course orchestral. The renderings are all equally excellent, and would entice people to purchase the albums that interest them.

There are a couple of quibbles: the engineer didn’t put any dead space after the Lully track, so it crashes into the next piece. The recording levels weren’t leveled out post compilation, so the lute galliard is louder than the full choral piece that precedes it. There’s also a curiously unexplained harpsichord transcription of a Bach lute piece. But the price is right, the quality excellent, and the breadth of selection far reaching, so I give it 5 stars.

By: Anniepoo

Anniepoo — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:26:18 +0000

Not only is this a wide-ranging collection of beautiful music, familiar composers are represented by something other than the-stuff-everybody-knows. I love Pachebel’s Canon in D Major, but the Pachebel on here is quite different. I found some composers I didn’t yet know I liked. What I’ve most appreciated about this Naxos and the others I have downloaded is the the overall volume is more comparable to pop music, so I can enjoy freely mixing different genres without having to constantly adjust the volume. That’s a GREAT plus for Naxos, IMO. Guitar Heroes (similar cover) is great, too – classical pieces arranged for guitar, plus.

By: Trevor Huxham

Trevor Huxham — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:13:51 +0000

I don’t normally write reviews, even for great products (as this album is). Nevertheless, I must point out that one of the tracks is incorrectly titled. Track #7, “Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, HWV 76: March” by Dorothee Mields, is the one in question. While still composed by George Frideric Handel, it should actually be the solo “When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver Man” from Handel’s “Dettingen Te Deum in A major.” Chris Dixon is the bass soloist and Wolfgang Helbich conducts the Concerto Polacco. The track itself is very beautiful, just incorrectly named. I discovered this incongruity because I heard lyrics (and voice, for that matter) in a track titled “March.”

The rest of the sampler is excellent, and I highly recommend you download this free album. It provides a broad selection of the Baroque era while not exhibiting the usual pieces everyone knows (e.g., Bach’s “Air” from his third orchestral suite, or one of Vivaldi’s four seasons).

By: Kevin Maze

Kevin Maze — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:02:30 +0000

There are several reasons to get this album:

1) The price: You can't beat FREE!

2) The composers: It's a great introduction to the names of the period who have given us this wonderful music: Vivaldi, Albinoni, Pachelbel, and Bach just to name a few.

3) The music: Ah, the music! Sublime instrumentals like "Overture (Suite) in E flat major"; "Dowland's First Galliard"; Albinoni's "Concerto for 2 Oboes in F major"; "Toccata in E Minor". But also stirring choral and vocal pieces such as Schutz's "Psalms of David"; "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day"; "Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei."

This album is a snapshot of the sweet music from a long ago time. Did I mention it was free?