Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (CD review)

Kati Debretzeni, violin; John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists. Soli Deo Gloria SDG 707 (two-disc set).

The first thing I thought as I began listening to these newly recorded Brandenburg Concertos from John Eliot Gardiner was, Dude, slow down.

Ever since the period-instruments movement started picking up steam in the Seventies and Eighties, conductors seem to have been vying to see which one could get through the material fastest. They always do this, mind you, on the presumption that authenticity demands fast tempos in the outer movements, as opposed to the more-traditional late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century performing practices that featured a slower pace. OK, so call me old-fashioned. While I have nothing against most interpretations of Baroque material on period-instruments and, in fact, cherish many recordings of them, I also prefer a relaxed, easy-to-digest technique and favor conductors who follow a sort of compromise approach. Here, Gardiner and his English Baroque Soloists are of another mind, determined to outrace the competition in their very first recordings of the complete Concertos. Some of Gardiner's speeds are so fast, he could almost have gotten all six Concertos on a single CD.

Fortunately, for all the huffing and puffing they do, the performers never sound too hurried, nor do they leave one completely breathless, probably because they play so well. Anyway, as you doubtless know, J.S. Bach presented his six Concertos to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721. Apparently, the ruler had taken a fancy to Bach's music and asked him to write something especially for him, the result being the pieces we have here. In them, Bach employed the widest selection of instruments he could find and highlighted different instruments in each work. Even though other composers of the time influenced him, Bach's compositions come across for the most part as highly original.

In Concerto No. 1 in F major (BWV 1046) for violino, piccolo, oboes, horns, bassoon, strings, and continuo, we get the biggest, grandest of the six works. Well, at least it's the biggest in terms of the numbers of players employed, not necessarily in length. However, Bach did divide the work into a number of sections, much like a suite. Indeed, the results sound a lot like Handel's Water Music, which Handel had written few years earlier. Under Gardiner, the First Concerto shows plenty of spirit, and if the music weren't quite so repetitious it might have become one of the more-popular pieces in the set.

The familiar Concerto No. 2 in F major (BWV 1047) for violin, flute (recorder), oboe, trumpet, strings, and continuo, emphasizes the trumpet, and with Gardiner taking it at almost breakneck speed, it must have left trumpeter Neil Brough with sore lips. Seriously, though, we get some amazing playing from him, leaving one practically more awestruck than entertained.

Bach wrote Concerto No. 3 in G major (BWV 1048) entirely for strings and continuo, and although Gardiner still takes the piece a tad too fast for my liking, the melodies are so infectious, it's hard not to come away humming the tunes. When Gardiner does take it easy, the upshot is most satisfying.

Concerto No. 4 in G major (BWV 1049) for violin, flutes (recorders), strings, and continuo features the recorders above all, and with speeds in a more comfortable range and playing of virtuosic caliber, this Concerto comes off best of all. The Andante is extraordinarily beautiful.

Ironically, perhaps, Concerto No. 5 in D major (BWV 1050) for clavier, violin, flute, strings, and continuo is one of the longest of the six Concertos yet scored for the smallest ensemble, about seven players. The emphasis is on the flute, and as in No. 4 Gardiner takes things at a comfortable pace, letting the music breathe a bit. The closing Allegro steals the show with its bouncy, catchy beat.

Finally, we get Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major (BWV 1051) for strings (mostly violas) and harpsichord. This one tends to repeat a lot of what went before, offering a fresh tune only in the concluding section. Not one of my favorites, but Gardiner gives his best shot.

Engineers for the Soli Deo Gloria label recorded the music during and after a live performance in Paris on January 10-12, 2009. It appears to me that they miked the live recordings more closely, making them sound a little more raggedy-Annie than the ones recorded later at a more moderate distance. The close-up recordings are clean and clear, to be sure, but they also have a more-clangy aspect to them and very little depth of field, as opposed to the warmer, fuller, smoother, and richer sound of the more-distantly miked recordings. One can notice these differences most readily in Concertos 2 and 3.

On a final note, a word of appreciation for the person or persons responsible for the packaging. The two discs come housed in a kind of hardback book, with two inner sleeves for the CD's and a thirty-six page commentary fastened inside. The excellent booklet notes include remarks on the Concertos from not only Maestro Gardiner but various members of the band as well.

JJP

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa