Brandenburg Concertos

Johann Sebastian Bach - The Six Brandenburg Concertos
Academy Of Ancient Music / Richard Egarr
PS3 SACD ISO: 4,80 GB (2.0/5.0) | EAC Rip, FLAC LOG & CUE: 476 MB (2.0) | 24B/88,2kHz FLAC (2.0): 1,70 GB | Lossless Artwork: 238 MB | Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi HMU 807461.62 | Country/Year: Europe 2009 | Genre: Chamber Music | Hoster: Filepost/Filefactory

There's no shortage of mainstream orchestral versions of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, but period ensembles usually play them as works for chamber orchestra, with their string sections pared down. In Richard Egarr's historically informed performances with the Academy of Ancient Music, the strings are limited to single instruments per part, much as Bach likely expected and probably got, if these concertos were actually played in his day…

The Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1046–1051, original title: Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments) are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 (though probably composed earlier). They are widely regarded as some of the best orchestral compositions of the Baroque era.

John Butt and the Dunedin Consort are familiar to many listeners for their exquisite recordings of Baroque choral masterworks, such as Handel's Messiah and Bach's Mass in B minor, but this set of Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos is the first instrumental outing for the Scottish period ensemble. Playing original instruments or modern copies, and using a lower tuning of A = 392hz, the group recreates Bach's music with a lively combination of extemporaneous ornamentation and propulsive rhythms that is invigorating for its lack of preciosity. The music is by turns brusque and gentle, and at times quite raucous, as it should be in the Concerto No. 1 in F major with its echoing horn calls, chattering oboes, and buzzing bassoon, and vigorous in the Concerto No. 3 in G major, with its energetic string playing.

Since the beginning of it’s existence in 1960, the Slovak Chamber Orchestra has developed into one of the most popular ensembles in the field of classical music in Slovakia, and into one of the principal representatives of the Slovak interpretation art abroad. The idea of founding a string orchestra has risen in the mind of Prof. Bohdan Warchal in the late 50-s, while still a member of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.

The "original Brandenburg concertos" subtitle of this release means less than it seems to suggest; the works have nothing to do with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, which didn't even have that name until many years after the fact. The connection is that Torelli's concertos here were dedicated, in 1698, to Sophie Charlotte, Electress of Brandenburg-Ansbach and eventually the leader honored by the Charlottenburg castle in Berlin. Bach's concertos were dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg, member of another branch of the Prussian ruling line. The big news here is not the Brandenburg connection but the entirely fresh performances of Torelli's Op. 6 concertos.