This new recording
has now become my version of choice
for Bach’s best-known orchestral music.
Reviewing it offers me the opportunity
for an overview; if you don’t want to
read this, cut to the chase and go to
the end of the review.
Having lived with several
recordings in the age of LP, each an
improvement on the previous version,
from Karl Münchinger on Decca Ace
of Clubs onwards, I thought I had found
my ideal CD version in Trevor’s Pinnock’s
earlier DG Archiv recording with The
English Concert – rather short
value with just three concertos per
CD in their original format, but more
recently reissued at mid-price with
fillers – Nos.1-3 with two oboe concertos
(471 720 2) and Nos.4-6 with the Triple
Concerto BWV1044 (474 220 2). You can
buy these online from Universal or itunes,
but, at £7.90 or £7.99 per CD, they
are about the same price as the CD versions.
Furthermore, the itunes versions are
not in the newer ‘plus’ format, so you
may find the bit-rate unacceptably low.
Make sure that you buy the newer versions
– rather confusingly, the original,
less generous couplings are also available
for the same price.
Original instrument
playing has moved on, but these versions
have served me very well since soon
after the beginning of the CD era, as
have the English Concert versions of
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, also
reissued at mid price, more generously
coupled, and I cannot imagine anyone
being seriously unhappy with their purchase.
There is, in fact,
a bewildering choice from the Universal
recording stable. Those who like their
Bach to be ultra-lively may prefer the
DG Archiv version by Musica Antiqua
Köln: I tried their version of
Concerto No.2 and, though I imagine
that some would find Reinhard Goebel’s
tempi a little too fast and furious
in places, I certainly wouldn’t rule
it out of court. (1-3 on 447 287 2;
4-6 with Suite No.4 on 447 288 2). Ultimately,
however, I find myself preferring Goebel’s
Telemann recordings to his Bach. See
the review
of this recording in another of its
CD reissues by DW, who is a greater
fan of Goebel’s Bach than I am.
Other honourable mentions
must go to the Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher
Hogwood on a mid-price 2-CD set (458
069 2). The same applies to the New
London Consort/Philip Pickett (440 675
2) and Academy of St Martin’s/Neville
Marriner (468 549 2) versions, as also
to the English Chamber Orchestra/Benjamin
Britten set (443 847 2) which now almost
qualifies as an historic document. All
these are available as downloads (Universal
or itunes) but rather over-priced at
more than you might expect to pay for
the CD equivalents.
In download or CD form
the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert
von Karajan set is not at all to my
liking – few now will warm to its big-band
style in any format. If you must have
Karajan, go for the cheaper, better-filled
version (453 001 2). I Musici (438 317
2) are less expensive as downloads (£9.99
for the complete set) than on CD, but
their Bach has not stood the test of
time well. If it’s Brandenburgs from
the older school that you want, go for
the Munich Bach Orchestra/Karl Richter
in Nos. 1-3 with BWV1055 and 1064 (463
011 2) or as a complete set (427 143
2), very good in their own terms, as
KM’s review
makes clear.
Warner Classics also
offer several fine versions of the Brandenburgs
on CD and as downloads. There’s more
Karl Richter here (with the Richter
Chamber Orchestra) as well as Concentus
Wien/Nikolaus Harnoncourt but
the ‘safest’ recommendation is to go
for the 1992 Erato version with the
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton
Koopman – very fine middle-of-the-road
period-instrument interpretations in
Koopman’s best manner. His recordings
are available on two separate Apex issues
(2564 61363 2 and 2564 61364 2) or as
a download for £5.00 – the latter excellent
value (0630-13733-6), except that the
advertised filler, the so-called Organ
Concerto in d, BWV1059, turns out
to be a repeat of the three tracks of
Brandenburg No.2. I have drawn this
problem to the attention of Warner Digital
and I hope that they will rectify matters,
but try the preview button before you
buy.
To be fair to Warner
Digital, they offered me in compensation
a free download of their version by
Il Giardino Armonico under Giovanni
Antonini – 4509-98442-6. (CD equivalent
on Teldec 2000, 8573 81216 2, which
seems to be on sale for less than the
2-CD Elatus set). This is a less ‘safe’
version than the Koopman – in fact,
it’s really for those who like to live
a little dangerously – but I found myself
preferring it. Don’t be put off by some
rather unpleasant and strident horn
playing at the beginning: it does get
(much) better. This is about as far
removed from that old Münchinger
ACL recording (or Karajan’s big-band
Bach) as you can get.
A word of warning about
Warner downloads – they come as wma
files, which means that you get better
sound quality than from mp3, but it
does limit where you can play them:
not all mp3 players can cope with wma
and Windows Media Player, with its annoying
2-second pauses between tracks, has
to be used to burn them to CD. Each
purchase comes with the right to open
the files on three players – every time
you want to play them on a new machine,
you have to have a live internet link,
for the programme to open one of the
three licences. Now that all the other
providers whom I use have banished DRM,
this makes Warner downloads more awkward.
Until they become more user-friendly,
you can buy the 2-CD set for little
(if any) more than the download without
any of these problems.
If it’s Italian performers
that you’re looking for, you may prefer
Concerto Italiano under Rinaldo Alessandrini,
a Naïve recording (OP30412).
This version is also available digitally
from itunes but, again, the saving over
the CDs is not very great.
The Bach Collegium
of Japan/Masaaki Suzuki have won golden
opinions for their Bach Cantata recordings.
Their versions of the Brandenburgs (BISCD
1151-2) are also very well worth considering
on CD or as downloads from classicsonline.
This BIS set includes an early version
of a movement of the Fifth Brandenburg,
but if you are looking for a first-rate
version of this concerto alone, try
Volume 1 of the Chandos complete harpsichord
concertos, regrettably now deleted as
a CD but available digitally.
I am amazed that music-making
of this quality appears to have been
deleted on CD and all the more grateful,
therefore, that Chandos have made the
recordings available as downloads: all
are on offer from theclassicalshop in
mp3 format (£6) and some of the volumes
also in lossless format (£10) – CHAN0595,
CHAN0611, CHAN0636 and CHAN0641. It’s
no exaggeration that these performances
bowled me over completely, with the
players ‘nudging’ and ‘leaning on’ the
music very subtly and totally delectably.
The booklets of notes for this series,
with Brueghel illustrations on the covers,
are a delight. These versions have replaced
the DG Archiv versions of these Keyboard
Concertos (Pinnock again) as my recordings
of choice.
I end as I began, with
Trevor Pinnock and this recent re-make
of the Brandenburgs with the eponymous
European Brandenburg Ensemble
on the Avie label. Like those original
DG Archiv issues, this Avie version
comes without fillers, so it isn’t such
good value as some of the versions I’ve
mentioned, but it is worth every penny
and it does come at mid price. I never
thought that Pinnock could improve on
his original versions, but I’m so thoroughly
convinced by his second thoughts that
these versions now replace everything
else in my affections. I shall still
want to hear the Koopman, Antonini and
Alessandrini accounts and Pinnock’s
own earlier versions, but this new Avie
set now becomes my version of choice,
even bearing in mind JFL’s admiring
but not quite enthusiastic review
of the CDs.
I agree rather with
Robert Costin’s Musicweb review
of a concert performance of the Brandenburgs
by these performers. This is period
performance without tears – the opening
of the First Concerto, for example,
has all the energy without the rawness
of the horns on the Alessandrini recording.
I was even more disappointed with the
stridency of the Academy of Ancient
Music under Richard Egarr in their recent
Wigmore Hall performance. If there is
a criticism to be made, it is that the
performers are too careful not to hit
any false notes. They play sweetly and
tunefully, but I don’t wish to make
this the major criticism that some reviewers
have made it – it’s not the baroque
equivalent of Karajan’s sometimes over-drilled
BPO recordings.
The recording is good,
with excellent balance, though the continuo
is just a little too reticent; this
is due in part to Pinnock’s decision
to go for a fairly light touch in this
department. Continuo balance is always
a problem: the harpsichord, in particular,
needs to be audible without being in
your face – except, of course, in No.5,
where it is meant to be prominent.
If you want to live
a little more dangerously, the Giardino
Armonico and Concerto Italiano versions
may well be your preferred versions
– I shall certainly continue to play
these as well as the new set. Otherwise,
for what I think the best of all worlds
– period playing without the problems
that early instruments sometimes bring
with them, avoidance of the breakneck
tempi that some performers seem to feel
necessary, and good well-balanced recording
– the new Pinnock set should be your
choice.
Brian Wilson
see also review
by Jens F. Laurson
for details
European Brandenburg Ensemble/Trevor Pinnock
