João Carlos Martins Essentials
Apple Music
Since nearly all essential recordings by Joao Carlos Martins are of works by J.S. Bach, the Brazilian pianist could be called a master of the Baroque composer's work—and he has been since the ‘60s. His airy readings of the sublimely stylised partitas (“Partita No. 5 em Sol Maior”) are balanced and expressive in all the right ways, while his performance of the D-minor concerto (“Concerto Para Piano e Orquestra Em Ré Menor”) pulses at once with gravity and lightness, as Martins glides across the keys—as he always does—to find gripping phrasings of the composer's expansive melodies.