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Just beautifull!   May 18, 2000

Its really great for me as a synth addict! especially a analog synth addict!


Just beautifull!   May 18, 2000
  1 out of 2 found this review helpful

After searching for Switched On Bach for more then 14 Years...i finally found it..in the Boxed Set..

Its really great for me as a synth addict! especially a analog synth addict!


Great to have these back in print -- excellent re-release   May 15, 2000
  4 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you like your baroque music very pure, these are not the albums for you. Having said that, the "switched on" versions of these pieces (mosly JS Bach) add a new dimension to the experience of listening to them. Carlos does not try to recreate sounds of individual instruments, but gives really colorful and vibrant timbres to her interpretations. The performances are very lively and have some real musical value. They are almost certainly not the only recordings you would want to have of this music, but they add a great deal of fun to the music and are worth repeated listenings. There is a great deal of dazzling sound effects built into the music (e.g., the sound of instruments moving back and forth the stereo field), and Carlos must be commended for the incredible effort to compile this music when electronic instruments were so much more primitive. There is very good and inforamtive documentation with the set that tells a great deal about the performances. I disagree with one reviewer that this the narrative appended to the disks detracts from the listening experience -- on most CD players you can just skip over this!

On a personal note, these CDs were among the first classical albums (remember vinyl?) I listened to way back when -- if they can get people (especially young ones) to listen and love this music, they are truly priceless.


Brilliant, But Unforgivably Flawed   May 1, 2000
  22 out of 43 found this review helpful

I bought this set pursuant to the objective of collecting a nice library of classical music that might hopefully inspire in some fashion my darling nine month-old daughter. When I read the posted reviews of this set I was certain that it was going to be the crown jewel of my various selections. And, I must confess that my daughter listens to these with rapt attention, as do I. This is clearly some of the most energizing and captivating music of any type that I've ever heard, and even though I'm not a scholar of classical music, my bet is that this is music for the ages.

What, then, is the "defect" to which I refer? To my utter astonishment, at the very end of each CD--lasting between seven and eight minutes--there is a narrated "lecture" by Ms. Carlos, complete with little out-takes and blurbs from their experiments during the creation of the work. This indulgence completely destroys the smooth, calming flow which otherwise would have emerged as one CD is played consecutively to the next. I am equally flabbergasted that no other reviewer has mentioned this. It is staggering to me that people who have ostensibly dedicated their lives to beauty and art and aesthetics do not see the gross disingeniousness of ending a musical masterpiece by a history lecture delivered in robotic cadence ("We first tried it this way, then that way, and our thinking was this, and then that....") I can't emphasize enough what a detraction this is from the work as a whole. I had visions of playing this at dinner parties, etc., but I'd now be too afraid to do so, concerned that I couldn't make it to the CD- player fast enough to bypass the startling and sobering dissertation. What was Ms. Carlos, et al., thinking when they packaged this? I realize many people are interested in the events behind the creation of this work, the different versions contemplated, etc. However, this type of retrospective should have been put on a separate CD, rather than disintegrating the intensely beautiful ambience which had been established by the music itself.

This is a clear example of ego eroding substance...Ms. Carlos apparently believes our interest in her thought processes equals our interest in her music itself. This CD should be recalled, just like any other defective product might be, as it feloniously degenerates what should be a highly regarded musical masterpiece. My suggestion is to not buy this and to wait for the new version which will inevitably have to be released someday once these people realize how they've flawed their own profound legacy by interupting the art with a lecture on the art.


Technically impresssive but sterile   March 15, 2000
  4 out of 11 found this review helpful

I bought this after being a fan of the original recordings when they came out. I was surprised by how my tastes had changed over the years. I now find synthesized classical music to be sterile and lacking in humanity. The sound is mechanical rather than warm. Carlos is a genius as far as technique goes but I now prefer my Bach played on non-electronic imstruments. Looking back, these were amazing experiments but something of a dead end.