Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach is one of those rare novelty recordings that never gets boring. In the capable hands of Carlos, Bach's keyboard masterpieces sound like they were made for the otherworldly blurps, farts, and chimes of a Moog synthesizer. And, in a sense, they were. Bach's inventive music doesn't lose any of it's contrapuntal punch in these complicated arrangements and, ...
Bela Fleck is one of the greatest five-string banjo players performing today. Beginning in the 1970s, he honed his lightning-fast chops performing bluegrass, then moved on to contemporary jazz and fusion sounds. With this album, he broadens his horizons once again by performing an entire program of classical music transcriptions. Reminiscent of classical guitar albums by John Williams (who makes a ...
Taking as her base 12 works of Bach, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero proceeds to play variations on each. The works are familiar and most Classical fans will recognize their melodies instantly. But Montero, who is closer to a jazz improvisationalist than a classical pianist merely embellishing, alters rhythm as well as melody, and the results are invariably both surprising and delightful. The ...
In 1968, keyboardist-composer Wendy Carlos released Switched-On Bach, her bestselling LP featuring baroque music performed on the Moog synthesizer. Carlos intended to spread the gospel of electronic classical music through this quirky release; instead, she sold more albums than Karlheinz Stockhausen could ever dream of, released a few follow-ups, and paved the way for Hot Butter's ...