The Complete Works of J.S.Bach

The box measurements are 41 x 14,5 x 14,5 cm ( roughly 16" x 5"x5" ) . It weighs four kilos (about nine pounds). Just in case the last information is any good for you...The set contains 172 cds and one cdrom with the equivalent to over a thousand pages with texts of all cantatas, liner notes and more. It is in German, English, French and Spanish. ( They say 5000 pages but considering that those pages consist of the same text repeated in four different languages then the correct information is to say over a thousand pages of texts. This is what you will have in English). The cd rom is compatible with PC and Mac. I have Mac and it seems that not all contents of the cd rom are available for Mac but there is a pdf with all texts for the songs and liner notes . There are detailed indexes in two booklets.The box is beautiful and elegant. It opens upwards and the cds are colour coded, distributed along three divisions. It is very practical and it is very easy to find out what you are looking for. The cds are in very simple paper cases but I didn't mind that, considering that Hanssler is such a good, old fashioned label that does care about its customers. Unlike Bach's complete works from the giant label Warner, which has zero documentation.The quality of the sound is very good and, although I prefer period instruments, I like the consistency of having this set where the signature of Helmuth Rilling is in each cd.When I listened cds from this set without headphones I don't play it loud but birds in trees near the open windows start to sing when I play Bach...I read once this beautiful poem where the poet , a South American poet called Ferreira Gullar, says something like " Her voice reminds me of a bird but not a bird singing. Her voice reminds me of a bird flying".I am going to use that idea to express how one feels listening to the music from this set : The music sounds like a bird but not like a bird singing. It sounds like a bird flying.

The Bachakademie-Edition, Stuttgart together with Hanssler published this set of complete recordings of JS Bach in the year 2000 (250 years after his life). I had purchased some individual CDs from the set several years ago, (the individual CDs were £16 or around full price) but when this offer came out to purchase the whole set at less than £1 per CD I snatched it! Well, it arrived today, and I can't stop listening! The Cantatas are stellar! I have all Glenn Gould's recordings, Helmut Walcha's, and Karl Richter's 75 Cantatas and several other hundred CDs and recordings of Bach. I have some amazing Bach recordings, but there are none that top these! These are glorious modern instrument performances, thank goodness. I would say they are exactly in the style of Karl Richter and the Bach Munich Orchestra. However, technically they continue where Karl Richter left off. The recordings are digital and better quality, because they are more recent. The playing is perhaps slightly lighter.. the orchestral accompaniments to the cantatas are magnificent... staccato is sprightly played, trumpets soar with clarity and purity, and the singing is unquestionably World Class. Energy and joy radiate from these performances. In short, I don't see how any Bach followers can afford not to have Helmut Rilling's outstanding set. Obviously, I'd say if you are into Historic Instrument Performances, avoid it. However, the tide is turning; finally we can hear Bach played with the full benefit of modern day technology (both in the playing and recording) in all its glory. I have a strong feeling that this fulfilling investment will go down as one of the best purchases of my life.. I'll certainly be listening to it for the rest of my life. Long live JS Bach! I cannot recommend this set strongly enough! Get it and forget everything else!

Others are more qualified than I to give detailed comments on performance etc - but just to note for £47 (with free postage) for 172 CDs covering Bach's work under a well respected conductor with a booklet of almost 300 pages listing the tracks together a CD-ROM giving fuller details is an incredible bargain. I must admit it is difficult to see how Amazon can be making any profit on this - but I shall sit down now and enjoy the performances.

Best complete Bach set. Excellent and varied performances of the Cantatas! And with modern instruments. None of these scratchy, frantic musically correct period instruments performances, favoured by so called experts!!

I really wanted to like this set. It is comprehensive, generally uses modern instruments and is well recorded. The snag is that it is so dreadfully earnest. If you see Bach as a very serious German church cantor then this set will be ideal for you. Snag is that nowadays it is better to see him as the father of seventeen children who had a sense of humour as evidenced by some of his secular cantatas. And that doesn’t really come across in this set. To see what I mean sample Edward Adwell’s interpretation of the French Suites. Every note is there but they seem almost too scholarly in his approach.To be fair the cantatas under Rilling are magnificentI don’t regret buying this box and I have so far only scratched the surface and listened to a few CDs, mainly the keyboard works.One other minor complaint. It would have been nice if details of the performers had been included in the tracklist booklet. I know that they are probably on the cd rom but not all of us have laptops in these days of tablets

Excellent edition, beautiful box. I like the booklets that describe in detail all the CD. I have just got it, so I have only heard a couple of CD.It sounded flawless and I'm delighted to have so many hours of great music ahead of me. I can really recommend this box.

Very good edition, all the Bach compositions at a very competitive price. Very good singers and orchestra. I don't Know any other edition so complete.

Fantastic collection.