J S Bach - Six Brandenburg Concertos
£24.65
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Label: Linn
Cat No: CKR430
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 2
Release Date: 19th January 2018
Contents
Artists
Dunedin ConsortConductor
John ButtWorks
Brandenburg Concertos nos 1-6, BWV1046-51 (complete)Artists
Dunedin ConsortConductor
John ButtAbout
Dunedin Consort, the team that brought you ‘John Passion’, is back with its first instrumental release: ‘J S Bach: Six Brandenburg Concertos’.
Under the direction of Bach specialist John Butt, Dunedin Consort demonstrates its collective experience and historical knowledge in an exceptionally insightful and fresh performance.
Bach’s Six Brandenburg Concertos are essential and enduringly popular works in the baroque orchestral repertory, full of interesting instrumentation choices and dancing melodies.
Among the talented instrumentalists are Pamela Thorby (recorder), Jonathan Manson (cello) and John Butt (harpsichord).
The Dunedin Consort has established an enviable reputation as one of the leading exponents of historical performance in the UK. Under the direction of prize-winning Bach specialist John Butt OBE, the ensemble has become particularly acclaimed for its inquisitive approach, shining new light into some of the best known pieces of the baroque repertoire.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1No.1 in F major, BWV1046 - I ...
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2No.1 in F major, BWV1046 - II Adagio
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3No.2 in F major, BWV1047 - I ...
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4No.2 in F major, BWV1047 - II Andante
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5No.3 in G major, BWV1048 - I ...
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6No.3 in G major, BWV1048 - III Allegro
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7No.4 in G major, BWV1049 - I Allegro
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8No.4 in G major, BWV1049 - II Andante
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9No.5 in D major, BWV1050 - I Allegro
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10No.5 in D major, BWV1050 - III Allegro
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11No.6 in B flat major, BWV1051 - I ...
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12No.6 in B flat major, BWV1051 - II Adagio ma non tanto
Europadisc Review
These must be among Bach’s most frequently recorded works, so any new recording needs to be something special if it’s to cut the mustard. And special this one most certainly is. Having already won widespread plaudits for their recordings of Bach’s B minor Mass, St Matthew and St John Passions, John Butt and his Dunedin Consort appear here on their first purely instrumental recording. Butt is equally well-known for his activities as a Bach scholar, particularly in investigating the performance practices of Bach’s time, and once again it’s the unerring combination of fastidious research and attention to detail with a lively, alert yet unshowy musicianship that impresses most.
Like a few other recent recordings, Butt and his players adopt a tuning based on French baroque court pitch, which is likely to have been fashionable at Cöthen in the 1720s and was significantly lower than what we now think of as ‘standard’ baroque pitch (something which, in fact, never really existed). So the concertos here effectively sound a whole tone lower than modern concert pitch, lending the music a rich, mellow timbre which, as Butt argues persuasively in his engaging booklet notes, also encourages the adoption of slightly less hectic speeds than have been fashionable of late. Not that these performances are wanting in animation: it’s the opening up of inner detail, and the perfect balance between the various lines, that drives the music on, whilst affording the listener time to take in those very details.
In the second concerto, the lower pitch also means that the trumpet part (splendidly played by the ever-dependable David Blackadder) is less perilous, and balances more naturally with the other concertante instruments: violin (Cecilia Bernardini), recorder (Pamela Thorby) and oboe (Alexandra Bellamy). In the sixth concerto, the violas da gamba and violone retune their instruments to achieve a more richly sonorous timbre; the result is revelatory, and sure to win this Cinderella work more admirers. Other highlights include the wind and solo violin playing in the first concerto (Cecilia Bernardini introducing some extremely tasteful decoration in her brief third-movement accompanied cadenza), lively but perfectly-paced accounts of the third and fourth concerto, and a dazzling, whirlwind harpsichord cadenza from John Butt himself in the first movement of the fifth concerto.
This set now takes its place (alongside the Academy of Ancient Music’s 2008 account on Harmonia Mundi under Richard Egarr) as the the most satisfying of recent recordings of these astonishing concertos. The overall quality of tasteful musicianship and unflashy virtuosity means that the listener is likely to return to these discs again and again without tiring. The natural balance and perspective of the recording (made in the Perth Concert Hall, Scotland), attractive presentation and price all help to make this a compelling bargain.
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