The “New” Gustav Leonhardt Anthology

Gustav Leonhardt with one of his harpsichords on the cover of the box for The New Gustav Leonhardt Edition

A little over a month ago Warner Classics released The New Gustav Leonhardt Edition, described on the back of the box as an “abundant legacy of Gustav Leonhardt’s recordings,” taken primarily from Das Alte Werk, the “historical” division of the Telefunken label. The “new” modifier distinguishes the collection from the Sony box set Gustav Leonhardt: The Edition, which draws upon lesser-known European labels. Sony released its collection in May of 2008, and it provided a little over fourteen hours on music on fifteen CDs. The Warner collection, on the other hand, consists of 35 CDs, which definitely merits that “abundant” adjective; but I shall not speculate on how comprehensive the contents are.

Nevertheless, it is definitely worth noting that the first sixteen CDs consist almost entirely of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Over the course of listening to them, one encounters Leonhardt as both a conductor and a keyboardist; and, in the latter capacity, as a performer on both harpsichord and organ. To be fair, however, many of those recordings can also be found in the monumental Bach 2000 complete-works release by Teldec, which has been one of my most treasured acquisitions from when I purchased it and traversed the entirety CD by CD.

Regular readers probably know by now that I like to deal with any large collection by dividing it into what mathematician, computer scientist, and educator Seymour Papert liked to call “mind-sized chunks.” For better or worse, I have decided to deal with all of those Bach albums as a single “chunk.” After discussing those recordings, I shall move on to other articles on the basis of country, first dealing with German composers and then turning to their English counterparts. However, because the collection gives relatively little attention to the French and the Italians, I shall combine them in the concluding chunk.

All of those Bach albums may, in turn, also be divided into separate categories. The largest of those categories consists of seven CDs of solo harpsichord performances. These include all six of the “English” suites, all six of the partitas, and the BWV 988 set of “Goldberg” variations. Those that enjoy the “French” suites will quickly appreciate that this collection is far from comprehensive!

Similarly, there are four CDs of harpsichord concertos, including concertos for multiple instruments. However, BWV 1052, often numbered as the first solo harpsichord concerto, is not included in the collection. The last three of the sixteen CDs account for Leonhardt as conductor with a selection of cantatas. Finally, there are two CDs presenting BWV 1014–1019, the six sonatas for accompanied violin, with Lars Frydén playing the violin part.

I think it would be fair to say that no performance in this collection left me dissatisfied. I continue to be interested in how different performers bring different points of view to their approaches to execution. Thus, when, several years ago, I was given the gift of the Brilliant Classics complete Bach collection, I had no problem with keeping it side-by-side with the Bach 2000 collection. Thus, in the context of my recent encounters with Lang Lang playing BWV 988 both on recording and in Davies Symphony Hall, I was only too happy to listen to how Leonhardt approached the music.

The fact is that between Bach 2000 and Brilliant Classics, I was not a stranger to any of the Bach selections on the sixteen CDs in the Leonhardt collection. Nevertheless, I felt that each of those selections had its own distinctive way of “speaking to me.” Thus, I shall continue to alternate from one performer to another when it comes to listening to recordings of Bach’s music; but I expect that Leonhardt will receive as much attention in the future as I have allocated to my other Bach sources in the past.