press release Martins

Suite No. 2 in A minor BWV 807 (20:43)
1. Prélude 4:49
2. Allemande 3:15
3. Courante 1:25
4. Sarabande 2:27
5. Les agréments de la
même Sarabande 2:31

6. Bourrée I alternativement;
Bourrée II 3:40
7. Gigue 2:15

Suite No. 3 in G minor BWV 808 (17:12)
8. Prélude 3:12
9. Allemande 3:07
10. Courante 1:51
11. Sarabande 2:02
12. Les agréments de la
même Sarabande 2:20

13. Gavotte I alternativement;
Gavotte II ou la Musette 2:29
14. Gigue 1:53

Suite No. 1 in A major BWV 806 (25:02)
15. Prélude 2:53
16. Allemande 2:54
17. Courante I; Courante II
avec deux Doubles 3:31
18. Double I; Double II 3:12
19. Sarabande 3:48
20. Bourrée I; Bourrée II 3:51
21. Gigue 4:35

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue
In D minor BWV 903 (14:02)
22. Fantasia 8:02
23. Fuga 5:54

LABOR RECORDS TO Re-RELEASE IN THE U.S. COMPLETE J.S. BACH KEYBOARD WORKS PERFORMED BY JOÃO CARLOS MARTINS
"Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" and First Three English Suites in New Labor CD release of Martins cycle

Labor Records announces its first U.S. reissue in the historic recording of the complete keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach by the brilliant Brazilian pianist João Carlos Martins.
The first volume in the new release of this historic series contains the unique Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and the first three of Bach's engaging English Suites: in A major, A minor and G minor, respectively. Martins, whose performances of Bach have astonished the musical world on three continents and for at least as many decades, brings his musical depth and keyboard wizardry to four of the great masterpieces of the keyboard repertory.
These performances will be followed by another fourteen volumes which constitute this monumental achievement (19 CDs in all). Bach himself was considered the master keyboardist of his age and these performances directly reflect his heritage as an improviser, virtuoso performer and musical thinker. The suites are collections of French, German and British dances reflecting the popular dance rhythms of the day but taken into higher realms of artistic expression by the composer and his interpreter. The Fantasy and Fugue, one of Bach's best-known and most-performed works, is a combination of strict technique, improvisation, keyboard fantasy and musical expressivity. The work was popular during the romantic period and Martins' version follows a famous nineteenth-century edition by the conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow.
"We are pleased," says Labor president and producer Heiner Stadler, "to make the first step in bringing this wonderful music and these exceptional performances back to the public. This recording of the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and the English Suites Nos. 1-3 is the first installment of one of the most ambitious and fulfilling projects in the history of recorded sound."
"Unconstrained by speculations about what Bach might have wanted, or by concerns about what performers in Bach's time might have made of this music, or what Bach's keyboard instruments might have sounded like, Martins gives us Bach through a modern filter, but a filter applied unconsciously and without artifice. This is 20th century Bach, but it's a natural product of Martins's feelings and experience, not a deliberately manufactured package." – Tom Vernier, CD Review

see review in AUDIOPHILE AUDITION