Audio CD review:
Johann Sebastian Bach, Francois Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti, Odair Assad, Sergio Assad - Sergio & Odair Assad Play Rameau, Scarlatti, Couperin, Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach, Francois Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti, Odair Assad, Sergio Assad - Sergio & Odair Assad Play Rameau, Scarlatti, Couperin, Bach

Band: Johann Sebastian Bach, Francois Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti, Odair Assad, Sergio Assad Title: Sergio & Odair Assad Play Rameau, Scarlatti, Couperin, Bach Rating: Release Date: 18 May, 1993 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Sonata In C Major, L.305, K.251 2: Pieces de Clavecin: Allemande 3: Pieces de Clavecin: Gigues 1 & 2 4: Pieces de Clavecin: Rigaudon 5: Pieces de Clavecin: Musette en Rondeau 6: Pieces de Clavecin: Le Rappel des Oiseaux 7: Pieces de Clavecin: Le Lardon 8: Pieces de Clavecin: La Follette 9: Pieces de Clavecin: Les tendres plaintes 10: Pieces de Clavecin: Les Cyclopes 11: Le Bavolet Flottant 12: Le Carillon de Cythere 13: The Well Tempered Clavier Book 1: Prelude And Fugue No.3 in C Major 14: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In E Major L.21 - K.162 15: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In F Major L.118 - K.466 16: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In E Major L.430 - K.531 17: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In A Minor L. 241 - K.54 18: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In D Minor L.413 - K.9 In D Minor ('Pastorale') 19: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In G Major L.288 - K.432 20: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In D Major L.465 - K.96 21: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In D Major L.107 - K.140 22: Nine Sonatas: Sonata In D Minor L.422 - K.141 (Toccata)

Customer Reviews best ever A must buy. Perhaps my favoriet of the 3 Assad brothers' CD's I've bought recently - but it's hard to choose because they are amazingly skilled, technically perfect yet completely human in their musical expression. A new take on old music It's right in the middle. "The guitar is not the piano and not the harpsichord. The harpsichord is too rigid. You can do more on the piano. But this is really music for the harpsichord, so what the combination of two guitars gives to the music is the range of the piano and the sound of the harpsichord. These sonatas have been played by many guitarists, but they're difficult to transcribe for one guitar. With two guitars, anything is possible. " - Sergio Assad (in the liner notes for Ramaeu, Scarlatti, Couperin, Bach) I could not agree more with Sergio's assessment of the guitar duo in relation to baroque keyboard music, and I've never enjoyed the genre more than I do listening to this album. The harpsichord and guitar are not as different as one might initially think; the two both use plucked strings, unlike the piano, which uses hammered strings. But the guitar has a much more expressive quality to it than the harpsichord, with a greater range of timbral possibilities. Its only drawback is the difficulty of arranging contrapuntal keyboard music, which generally features multiple simultaneous melodies, for the guitar. Adding a second guitar fixes this problem. With any other guitarists, the performances might sound disjointed and lose the uniformity that a solo performer brings to the music; but the Assad brothers might as well be one person. They know each other's playing well enough that every dynamic and rhythmic nuance of the music is perfectly synchronized. The only downside: after hearing this album, the harpsichord will never sound good enough again. Stunning, simply stunning I like Rameau and Scarlatti anyway, but I was unprepared for how the Assad duo could sound like one guitar, like a harpsichord but better. I heard the "Cyclops" section of Rameau's inventive suite on XM classics, and I absolutely had to have this CD. This music was originally for keyboard, but it sounds incredible on guitar. The delicacy of the Assad technique is unequalled by any other guitarists I've heard. How they make this music, I'll never know. But it's one of my favorite cd's and so restful and refreshing. There is a lot of music on this cd and it's all wonderful. . You can see a complete list of all Johann Sebastian Bach, Francois Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti, Odair Assad, Sergio Assad discography, or go back to the Johann Sebastian Bach, Francois Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti, Odair Assad, Sergio Assad tabs