Thurston Dart’s late 1950s recording of the Brandenburg
Concertos remains an exciting, life enhancing experience. Subsequent
conductors built on his editions - Neville Marriner in particular
- and made their own recordings. Marriner’s Philips recordings
with the ASMIF might indeed reasonably be said to be homage
to, and extrapolation of, Dart’s work in Bach performance
on disc. Dart’s influence has been gratifyingly extensive,
and his regrettably early death in 1971 has not dimmed admiration
for his thoroughness, scholarly application, editorial acumen,
and practical musicianship.
The Philomusica of London contained a raft of outstanding instrumentalists,
among them violinists Carl Pini and Granville Jones, violist
Cecil Aronowitz, oboists Peter Graeme (who died very recently)
and young Neil Black, flautist Richard Adeney, viola da gambist
Desmond Dupré, and trumpeter Dennis Clift.
Dart favours trumpets (Clift and Sydney Ellison) in No.1, which
pushes things an octave higher. But the strikingly direct and
bright sound is worth it, not least when so enterprisingly,
virtuosically and excitingly performed as here. Carl Pini, who
was many years later to make his own recording of the Concertos
- no doubt recalling Dart as he did so - is the excellent fiddler.
What emerges throughout is a lithe and compelling corporate
identity, as does purpose and precision in the finale of this
concerto. We can admire the woody recorder of Christopher Taylor
in Nos. 2 and 4, the chamber intimacy in the former concerto’s
central movement, and the striking élan of its Allegro
assai finale.
Dart encourages some teaky but still tangy cello tone in No.3,
and gives Granville Jones an opportunity for solo glory in the
Andante, an interpolation from BWV1021 - but note the
nicely balanced Dart harpsichord too. Jones’ interplay
with the recorders of Christopher Taylor and Richard Taylor
in No.4 is laudably engineered. Dart’s harpsichord is
at its busiest in the Affetuso of No.5-possibly a bit
too much so-but his solo cadenza towards the close of the movement
reminds one of his outstanding solo recordings made over the
years. Viola warmth floods No.6, with Rosemary Green supporting
Aronowitz, and expression in the slow movement is quite intense,
and warmly vibrated.
More than a staging post in the history of the Brandenburgs
on disc, this is an especially noteworthy and creatively alive
document of performance practice at the end of the 1950s.
Jonathan Woolf
Masterwork Index: Brandenburg
concertos
Philomusica of London/Thurston Dart (harpsichord and conductor)
