Founded: 1978 - USA

The Bach Ensemble, founded in 1978 by Joshua Rifkin, has performed throughout the USA and rapidly gained recognition as one of America’s outstanding groups devoted to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments. Its first recording for Nonesuch, Bach’s Wedding Cantata BWV 210, with Judith Nelson - won broad critical acclaim. In the words of Stereo Review, “of all the Bach cantatas recorded on early instruments, this is musically the most rewarding…”

Source: Liner notes to the 2-CD album ‘J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor’ conducted by Joshua Rifkin (Nonesuch, 1982)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2001)

Joshua Rifkin: Short Biography | The Bach Ensemble | Recordings | General Discussions | Three Weimar Cantatas - Rifkin | BWV 232 - Rifkin | BWV 243 - Rifkin | Book: Bach's Choral Ideal [by Joshua Rifkin] | Article: The Passion according to Saint Matthew BWV 244 [By Joshua Rifkin]

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Joshua Rifkin on Interpretation and Rhetoric

Rifkin's Pesky Idea (by Bernard D. Sherman)

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