bach 2000 the complete bach edition tracklist

Besides, I can hear the identical performance spruced up and available on compact disc and sounding better than it did before. As to the vinyl surface, ''scratched'' might translate into ''charmingly distressed.'' I don't think so. Maybe an antiques dealer would admire the patina on that old cardboard cover. I still have the first long-playing record I ever bought: Book I, Volume 1 of Wanda Landowska playing ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'' (RCA Victor LM1017). There is even the minute possibility that we could own the original manuscript, but a printed score available in any reputable music store will (or should) give us the same messages and is probably easier to read. We can buy a copy, but then so can everyone else. But how do we collect the Bartok Fourth String Quartet? I count 10 versions of it now in print. Composers own the performance rights (for a while) performers own some of the profits from record sales. The collector's thrill of possession has been taken away. We can pick it up, feel its surface and know it is downstairs on the sideboard when we go to bed at night. We can show friends a good piece of Wedgwood or Rose Medallion china, buoyed not only by its beauty but by knowing it belongs to us and not them. There is the pride of ownership, but this is a nettlesome problem in music. Sudden world shortages of ''Actus Tragicus''? Some unforeseen market run on the ''Coffee Cantata''? All of Bach will be there waiting for us, like the canned goods we prudently stocked in our backyard bomb shelter. Once the contents are home and in place, all cultural bases will be covered. Music enters the 21st century with luggage in its hand. To get them that far, the record company has thoughtfully arranged Bach complete into a musical suitcase, equipped with handle for carrying. Having these items assembled on the shelf is a comfort, I suppose. Teldec has let loose an avalanche of greatness few of us are ready to dig our way out of.

A less caloric package, minus the cantatas (described by one representative of the company as ''Bach Light''), will cost you $849.97. Eleven hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-seven cents, please.

If each plastic jewel box measures three-eighths of an inch in thickness, allow for almost two yards of music. No time out for naps or bathroom breaks either. According to my crude powers of calculation ''Bach 2000,'' as this project is trademarked, competes with Genesis: a creation-making seven days of listening and no seventh day of rest. Volume 7 has motets, songs and 371 chorales. Think of the expanse: 153 compact discs released in 12 volumes, 71 CD's of the sacred cantatas alone, 35 more for organ and other keyboard pieces. Never mind when I would listen to it where would I put it? The Teldec company hasn't offered to send me its recorded collection of Johann Sebastian Bach's music complete, but if it does, I have a gracious letter of refusal ready.

Bach 2000 the complete bach edition tracklist