Brandenburg

J. S. Bach - Brandenburg Concertos + 3 further Concertos for various solo instruments
Christopher Hogwood, The Academy of Ancient Music
Classical | APE + Cue | 2 CD, covers, booklet | 374 + 306 MB RS
Editions de l'Oiseaux-Lyre 1997

This set of Brandenburg concertos is based upon the original Cöthen edition, and not the more often recorded final version which Bach sent to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721.
The main difference between the two versions is that in the Cöthen edition, being an early draft, the third movement of #1 is omitted; the fourth movement thus becomes the third movement and is itself abridged. Likewise, the pyrotechnic, crowd-goes-wild harpsichord solo in the first movement of #5 appears here abbreviated and tamed.

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.

Brilliant transcriptions for guitar trio of four of the Brandenburgs.

Casals was one of the very few conductors, and certainly the first, to record the complete Brandenburgs twice – in 1950 with his Prades Festival Orchestra (Columbia LPs) and in 1964-6 with the Marlboro Festival Orchestra (Sony CDs). Incidentally, don't be fooled by their names into assuming that these were amateur ensembles – both were extraordinary groups of top-flight professionals who would come together to study and play over the summer – the cello section of the Marlboro Festival Orchestra included Mischa Schneider (of the Budapest Quartet), Hermann Busch (Busch Quartet) and David Soyer (Guarneri Quartet).

Casals was one of the very few conductors, and certainly the first, to record the complete Brandenburgs twice – in 1950 with his Prades Festival Orchestra (Columbia LPs) and in 1964-6 with the Marlboro Festival Orchestra (Sony CDs). Incidentally, don't be fooled by their names into assuming that these were amateur ensembles – both were extraordinary groups of top-flight professionals who would come together to study and play over the summer – the cello section of the Marlboro Festival Orchestra included Mischa Schneider (of the Budapest Quartet), Hermann Busch (Busch Quartet) and David Soyer (Guarneri Quartet). As recalled by Bernard Meillat, while Casals appreciated research into Baroque playing, he viewed Bach as timeless and universal, and insisted that an interpreter's intuition was far more important than strict observance of esthetic tradition.

Flautists tend to know that Quantz gave flute lessons to Frederick the Great and that he wrote about 300 concertos for the instrument. Only a few of these concertos have been easily accessible in print or on disc. However, in this welcome recording of five Quantz concertos, flautist Rachel Brown seems the perfect ambassador to bring a few of these unfamiliar but intriguing works back into the repertoire. Whether playing a Baroque-inspired fugue, a more ‘classically styled’ Allegro or languid slow movement, Brown’s daring expression and technical brilliance – together with the Brandenburg Consort’s focused sound and racy pace – seem intuitive. Quantz and Brown appear together again, briefly, in Concert in Sanssouci. ‘Sans souci’ means ‘without worry’, and was the name of Frederick the Great’s country house near Potsdam. A certain joie de vivre is in the air in this recreation of a typical evening’s concert chez Frederick. The Hanover Band, under Roy Goodman, plays with real spirit, although Nathalie Stutzmann’s rich contralto lends a more melancholic feel in arias by CH Graun. Although Frank de Bruine is a rather understated soloist in the CPE Bach oboe concerto, the band’s dynamic interpretations and composer’s inventiveness win through.

This new set of Bach's most famous concertos does not have to compete with any of the others presently on the market for it is based on sources which predate the fair copy which Bach dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721. It is not the first time that such an enterprise has found its way on to gramophone records and many readers will doubtless remember Thurston Dart's pioneering work, along similar lines of thought, which resulted in recordings issued by Philips during the early 1970s. The differences, both large and small, between Bach's fair copy of the six Brandenburg Concertos and the earlier forms are too numerous to discuss fully in these pages, but they are dealt with in Christopher Hogwood's interesting introductory essay which accompanies the set.