George Malcolm & Karl Munchinger - J.S. Bach: Harpsichord Concertos - The Art Of Fugue (2017)

There were many worlds in George Malcolm’s (1917–1997) universe – organist, harpsichordist, pianist, composer, choral director and conductor – and this one demonstrates his unique skill as a solo performer who, throughout his career, more than any other individual defined the harpsichord’s identity in England. After World War II Malcolm became the most famous English harpsichordist of his day, with a brilliant technique, superb musicianship and an idiosyncratically modern approach to playing which, for his audiences, came to exemplify the very nature of the instrument itself. In celebration of the centenary of his birth (28 February 1917).

Bach’s last work, The Art of Fugue, left unfinished at his death, has been shown by many scholars and performers to have been composed for the keyboard, although the first printed edition of 1751 presented the piece in open score, which led to its being mistaken for an ensemble work. Scholars Donald Francis Tovey and Heinrich Husmann, working in the 1930s, and harpsichordists Isolde Ahlgrimm and Gustav Leonhardt in the 1950s, firmly established the work as a harpsichord piece (pedal harpsichord, in Ahlgrimm’s case). However, in his 1964 recording Malcolm directed his colleagues of the Philomusica of London (an outgrowth of the Boyd Neel String Orchestra, founded in the 1930s) in English conductor Leonard Isaacs’s 1952 arrangement of the work for strings and winds (with some participation by Malcolm as harpsichordist). Leonard Isaacs (1909–1997) was, like Malcolm, a piano student of Herbert Fryer at the Royal College of Music.

Notes are by Peter Watchorn, an Australian-born, US-based harpsichordist, one of whose teachers, Harold Lobb, was also an associate of Malcolm. In Watchorn’s opinion, Malcolm’s greatest (and often over-looked) concerto recording was that of BWV 1052 and 1053 recorded in 1963 in Stuttgart with Münchinger’s celebrated chamber orchestra.

TRACKLIST
01. J.S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No.1 in D minor, BWV 1052-1. Allegro - George Malcolm & Stuttgarter Kammerorchester & Karl Münchinger
02. J.S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No.1 in D minor, BWV 1052-2. Adagio - George Malcolm & Stuttgarter Kammerorchester & Karl Münchinger
03. J.S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No.1 in D minor, BWV 1052-3. Allegro - George Malcolm & Stuttgarter Kammerorchester & Karl Münchinger
04. J.S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No.2 in E, BWV 1053-1. (Allegro) - George Malcolm & Stuttgarter Kammerorchester & Karl Münchinger
05. J.S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No.2 in E, BWV 1053-2. Siciliano - George Malcolm & Stuttgarter Kammerorchester & Karl Münchinger
06. J.S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No.2 in E, BWV 1053-3. Allegro - George Malcolm & Stuttgarter Kammerorchester & Karl Münchinger
07. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 1 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
08. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 2 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
09. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 3 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
10. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 4 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
11. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 5 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
12. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 6 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
13. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Canon - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
14. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 7 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
15. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Canon at the octave - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
16. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 8 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
17. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Canon at the twelfth - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
18. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 9 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
19. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Canon at the tenth - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
20. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 10 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
21. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 12a - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
22. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 12b - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
23. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 13a - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
24. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 13b - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm
25. J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080-Arr. Isaacs-Contrapunctus 11 - Members of the Philomusica of London & George Malcolm