Bach Brandenburg

Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Bohdan Warchal - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos No. 1-6 (1995)

Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Bohdan Warchal - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos No. 1-6 (1995)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:46:11 | 650 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Selected Sound Carrier AG | Catalog: 1930.2028-2

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.
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites (2009)

Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites (2009)
EAC | APE (image+.cue, log) | Digital Booklet | 03:20:39 | 1,01 Gb
Genre: Classical | Label: BIS | Catalog: 1721/22

Listening to this irresistibly joyful and magnificently musical set of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites, one is immediately struck by two thoughts. First, Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan have been wasting their time concentrating on Bach's dour cantatas, and second, Bach himself was wasting his time writing his melancholy church music when he could have been composing infinitely more cheerful secular music. While Suzuki and his crew have turned in superlatively performed, if spectacularly severe recording of the cantatas, they sound just as virtuosic and vastly more comfortable here.
The Bath Festival Chamber Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concertos (2008)

The Bath Festival Chamber Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concertos (2008)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | 02:29:15 | 848 Mb
Genre: Classical | Label: EMI Classics | Catalog: 5099 2 17617 2 0

The Gemini Series features an impressive roster of singers, conductors, soloists, and ensembles of international renown, all from the incomparable EMI Classics stable. EMI's rich legacy of recording expertise comes to the fore in performances from the 1960s to the 1990s. Gemini titles are predominantly collections of single composers and fantastic value with well over an hour of music on each CD, making them the ideal place to start or develop a collection of classical music. Each 2-CD set contains over two hours of music for a fantastically low price. Attractively designed and packaged in space-saving brilliant boxes, each set includes three-language booklets with detailed notes on the music.
Antony Walker, Orchestra of the Antipodes - Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (2011)

Antony Walker, Orchestra of the Antipodes - Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 674 Mb | Total time: 57:01+64:54 | Scans included
Classical | Label: ABC Classics | 476 1923 | Recorded: 2003

The Orchestra of the Antipodes' 2011 set of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos is certainly worth having for its exquisite period performances of these perennial favorites, but it is even more attractive for offering eight popular sinfonias from the cantatas, thereby giving listeners added value in an already excellent set. The Australia-based ensemble plays original instruments, and the performances are appropriate in textures, tempos, and ornamentation, so everything a fan of Baroque performance practice could want can be found here. The pacing is fleet and efficient, the counterpoint is transparent, and the sonorities are bright, so the combination will certainly excite even the most experienced devotees of these works.
Reinhard Goebel, Berliner Barock Solisten - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (2017)

Reinhard Goebel, Berliner Barock Solisten - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (2017)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 536 Mb | Total time: 95:19 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Sony Classical | 88985361112 | Recorded: 2016

Under the baton of Reinhard Goebel, the Berlin Barock Solisten releases a spectacular new recording of one of the Baroque era’s most celebrated masterpieces. Thirty years after Goebel’s first reference recording of the Brandenburg Concertos, maestro Goebel and the Berlin Barock Solisten perform the Brandenburgs not only with consummate technique but with thrilling verve, supreme sensitivity and a wealth of dynamic contrasts. Goebel has also incorporated the latest findings of musical scholarship in his recording, for example regarding the choice of instruments.
Neville Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites (2007)

Neville Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites (2007)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 914 Mb | Total time: 191:35 | Scans included
Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # 5 00955 2 | Recorded: 1984, 1985

While most serious listeners already have their favorite sets of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and the Orchestral Suites, newcomers searching for respectable recordings at a reasonable price would do well to start with this triple-CD set by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. These recordings were made in 1984 and 1985, and still offer fine sound for early digital recording and exceptional musical value. Marriner's performances may not be as exacting and scrupulous about Baroque performance practice as those of Gustav Leonhardt or Trevor Pinnock, but they are informed by serious scholarship and have sufficient appeal to make the finer points debatable.
Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin - Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (2021)

Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin - Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (2021)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 482 Mb | Total time: 87:35 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | # HMM 902686.87 | Recorded: 2021

Johann Sebastian Bach and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin go back a long way together. This recording, made with the welcome participation of Isabelle Faust and Antoine Tamestit, follows the complete violin concertos (2019), which left a lasting impression. Ever since a memorable first recording in the late 1990s, the Berlin musicians have returned regularly to the inexhaustible source of the Brandenburgs. They have achieved a sovereign mastery of what is not a single work, but six. In their hands, they become successive episodes of a piece of musical theater in love with dance, transparent sound and freedom.
Jeannette Sorrell, Apollo's Fire - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; Harpsichord & Violin Concertos (2010)

Jeannette Sorrell, Apollo's Fire - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; Harpsichord Concertos; Violin Concerto (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 875 Mb | Total time: 79:21+72:41 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Avie | # AV2207 | Recorded: 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005

Cleveland's phenomenal early music ensemble Apollo's Fire ought to be proud of its 2010 double-disc release of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-1051, augmented with the Harpsichord Concertos, BWV 1052 and 1056, and the reconstructed Violin Concerto, BWV 1052, for this set is quite comparable to other excellent period versions on the market. Led by Jeannette Sorrell from the harpsichord, the group is vibrant and fully engaged in making lively music, so the performances are far from stodgy museum pieces.
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (1999)

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 473 Mb | Total time: 41:53+51:46 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Veritas | # 5 61552 2 | Recorded: 1987, 1988

This reissue of a 1989 recording by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has a good claim for the title of "Best Buy Brandenburgs." These performances don't have the splashy extroversion of Il Giardino Armonico or the caffeine-pumped, high-velocity thrill of Musica Antiqua Köln, but they're not overly reserved or dull, as some English ensembles are accused of being. The OAE's instrumental playing is very skillful indeed, with particularly nice work from the horns in the third movement of the First Concerto, and from trumpeter Mark Bennett in the Second; and the tempos are moderately quick (which means that they would have been considered rather fast before 1980 or so), but without being breathless. The slow movements sing sweetly–the viola playing of Monica Huggett and Pavlo Besnosiuk in the slow movement of the Sixth Concerto is especially lovely–and the quick outer movements have an infectiously bouncy pulse.
–Matthew Westphal
Jonathan Rees, Scottish Ensemble - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concertos (1998)

Jonathan Rees, Scottish Ensemble - Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concertos (1998)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 750 Mb | Total time: 76:54+69:21 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Virgin Classics | # 5 61403 2 | Recorded: 1990-1992

This is a perfectly reasonable recording of Bach's works for violin and orchestra and anyone who has not heard the works before will no doubt find them more than adequate. Violinist and leader Jonathan Rees is a fine player with a sweet tone and a warm style and he takes the strings of the Scottish Ensemble through thoroughly professional performances of the works. When joined by spry violinist Jane Murdoch in the Concerto for two violins and plangent oboist Nicholas Daniel in the Concerto for violin and oboe, Rees proves himself a graceful and considerate partner. Virgin's early-'90s sound is a bit thin on top but still clean and clear.