Phantasm, Laurence Dreyfus

This is the third and final instalment of the Well-Tempered Consort series (5 Diapasons, Gramophone Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice). In this programme devised by its director Laurence Dreyfus, the viol consort Phantasm continues to shine new light on the fugues from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier interspersed with some of the composer’s most harmonically adventurous experiments from the Clavierübung III. This polyphonic feast also includes two works from the Inventions and Sinfonias as well as the Fantasia in G major BWV 572, or Pièce d’orgue as it is sometimes called, which boasts an extraordinary closing pedal point. A fitting end to a remarkable journey!

• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV669 'Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit'
• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV673 'Christe, aller Welt Trost'
• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV680 'Wir glauben all an einen Gott' ('Giant Fugue')
• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV684 'Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam'
• Bach, J S: Chorale Prelude BWV689 'Jesus Christus unser Heiland'
• Bach, J S: Clavier-Übung III
• Bach, J S: Fantasia in G major, BWV572
• Bach, J S: Fughetta super 'Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr', BWV677
• Bach, J S: Fughetta super 'Dies sind die heilgen zehen Gebot', BWV679
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1 No. 21 in B flat major, BWV866: Fugue
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 3 in C sharp major, BWV 872: Fugue
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 8, BWV877: Fugue
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 15 in G major, BWV884: Fugue
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 18, BWV887: Fugue
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 24, BWV893: Fugue
• Bach, J S: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
• Bach, J S: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2
• Bach, J S: Three-part Invention (Sinfonia) No. 1 in C major, BWV787
• Bach, J S: Three-part Invention (Sinfonia) No. 8 in F major, BWV794

Gramophone Magazine

March 2023

Editor's Choice

 

BBC Music Magazine

April 2023

Recording of the Month

 

April 2023

This is a truly outstanding album, which rewards the listener with profound aural pleasure. Through the intimacy of the viol consort these keyboard works are clothed in a new timbral mantle, equally sumptuous and revelatory.

March 2023

Recoloured in this scrumptious, nasal resonance, Phantasm have brought to life aspects of Bach’s music I knew to be there, inscribed into the musical notation, with utter stylishness.