Repackaging a Tharaud Bach Concertos Album

courtesy of PIAS

About a month ago PIAS announced that harmonia mundi would be releasing a “repackaged CD version” of pianist Alexandre Tharaud’s Concertos Italiens album. This struck me as a bit odd. Amazon.com has a Web page for the version that was released in the United States on March 8, 2005; and that version is still on sale for both the audio CD and MP3 download. It is unclear what “repackaging” will entail, particularly since there really is not much to package in the MP3 version. Indeed, the best thing that can happen in the digital domain would be for harmonia mundi to add the PDF version of the booklet that is included with the CD.

I must confess that the original release of this album took place back when I was an information technology researcher in Silicon Valley. I was not particularly big on recordings at that time. Where Johann Sebastian Bach was concerned, I had the Bach 2000 complete-works anthology; and I saw no need to add to my Bach collection. I only came to know about Tharaud through my “retirement gig;” and my interest in his recordings has been a bit on the variable side.

Retirement also meant that I had more time to spend with my piano. Thanks to Dover, I went through a period of exploring Bach’s solo keyboard concertos and learning which compositions by Italian composers he had appropriated. Unlike his contemporary, George Frideric Handel, Bach never set foot on Italian soil; but, as a pedagogue, he had a serious interest in how music was being made in other parts of the European continent. My own encounters with the compositions on Tharaud’s album were definitely pleasant ones, but not particularly profound. This was a time when I was just beginning to appreciate Bach’s achievements as a pedagogue, but good pedagogy does not necessarily make for engaging recitals or recordings.

The repackaged version is scheduled for release one week from today. I cannot imagine that will make much of a difference on the Amazon.com Web site. Nevertheless, I sincerely hope that, on the digital side, the MP3 Web page be augmented to allow for downloading the accompanying booklet.