Bach - The Complete Brandenburg Concertos / Pearlman, Boston Baroque
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDFormat: Box set
CD Release Date: 1996-07-23
Music Label: Telarc
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- I. (Allegro)
- II. Adagio
- III. Allegro
- IV. Menuetto; Trio; Polonaise; Trio
- I. (Allegro)
- II. Andante
- III. Allegro Assai
- I. (Allegro)
- II. Adagio
- III. Allegro
- I. Allegro
- II. Andante
- III. Presto
- I. Allegro
- II. Affettuoso
- III. Allegro
- I. (Allegro)
- II. Adagio Ma Non Tanto
- III. Allegro
Free Music Notes for Bach - The Complete Brandenburg Concertos / Pearlman, Boston Baroque
Free Music Review: Brilliant with caveats
Hit: 3 Stars
I bought this recording after seeing rave reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere. Mostly those reviews are justified. The sound is outstanding, whether because of the period instruments or the quality of recording. The many voices are brought out, especially in the first concerto, as they rarely are on other recordings. The musicianship is outstanding.
Now the things I didn't like (but others may like them):
1. The tempi are way too fast for my taste. One of my favourite movements, the last "allegro" of the third concerto, is played prestissimo, which entirely spoils it for me. And it is not the only one. Most movements are faster than normal, none are slower.
2. In the solo bits -- particularly the cadenza in the fifth concerto -- there is too much rubato. Too often rubato is used as an excuse for disentangling the fingers rather than to add to the music. If it is such a good idea, why is it never used (unless explicitly scored) in the orchestral sections?
3. Bach wrote only two cadence chords for the middle movement of the third concerto. A cadence concludes a movement, but what do they conclude here? Obviously an impromptu movement that a soloist is supposed to conclude. Some performers oblige (eg, Neville Marriner/Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields; the long out-of-print Harry Newstone/Hamburger Kammerorchester). Some cop-out by introducing an extraneous slow movement, from another Bach piece, that ends in the same chords (eg, Menuhin/Bath Festival Orchestra). But the worst sort of cop-out is to just play those two chords and nothing else. Which is what these performers do. Pearlman states sonorously, in the liner notes, that "there is no reason to suppose that anything else is meant to be supplied here..." Oh yes, there is. To play just those chords and nothing else is "musical nonsense" (as I recall the liner notes to the Newstone LP saying.) Moreover, though improvisation fell out of favour in 20th-century classical music, it was an important part of music from before Bach (the Handel/Scarlatti duel is famous) up until Liszt and beyond.
If things like the above bother you, don't buy these CDs -- at least, not without hearing them first.
Bach - The Complete Brandenburg Concertos / Pearlman, Boston Baroque Poster
Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman recorded a splendid set of the Brandenburg Concertos on period instruments in 1993 and 1994. Made entirely in the US, these snappy, crisply articulated, and fluent performances rely heavily on the talents of violinist Daniel Stepner (who doubles as one of the two solo violists in Concerto No. 6). Among the highlights are the joyous finale to Concerto No. 4 and the superb cembalo cadenza in No. 5, played by Pearlman. Along with outstanding sound, there's a winning sense of freshness and discovery in these performances. --Ted LibbeyClassical Music CDs
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