MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 - 1750)
Brandenburg Concertos (ca 1721)
Concerto No.1, F-major, BWV 1046 [19:08]
Concerto No.2, F-major, BWV 1047, [11:28]
Concerto No.3, G-major, BWV 1048 [11:44]
Concerto No.4, G-major, BWV 1049, [15:00]
Concerto No.5, D-major, BWV1050 [20:44]
Concerto No.6, B-flat major, BWV 1051 [15:52]
La Petite Bande/Sigiswald Kuijken
rec. Galaxy Studios, Mol, Belgium, October 2009
ACCENT ACC24224 [51:31 + 45:20]

Experience Classicsonline


In a way Sigiswald Kuijken’s honest liner-notes (set in the beautiful Rotis font) are the best thing about this recording. They start out by putting the phrases “original” and “authentic” in deserving quotation marks. Then they continue acknowledging that neither of those things are in any way truly possible in musical performance, and that the state of performance and listening is always, necessarily in flux. That’s not to say that anyone should stop trying to bring new or fresh-old ideas to this music, and Kuijken does just that.
 
Kuijken had already recorded the Brandenburg Concertos twice before he set out to record them yet again in 2009: First in 1977 on SEON/Sony with Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Brüggen, then again in 1994 for DHM/MBG with his group, La Petite Bande. The improvement in period instrument (PI) performance since the 1970s and even 1990s has been significant and might merit a new recording alone, but Kuijken implements other changes, too. For one, he uses a true, valve- and hole-less trumpet in the Second Concerto and he has the man to do it-Jean-François Madeuf. For the violoncello part, Kuijken uses a violoncello da spalla (aka viola pomposa) with which he also recorded the Cello Suites.
 
They are the most chamber-music like of Kuijken’s Brandenburgs yet, with that crisp, uncompromising attack that makes his one-year cantata cycle on the same label such a thrilling proposition. The thrill isn’t maintained throughout as swaying, temperate speeds introduce mellower tones. The natural horns that sound nowhere as secure as those of Richard Egarr who, along with Jordi Savall, takes a similar lilt-inflected, warm, unhurried approach. This as opposed to the admittedly exciting, unrelenting citius, altius, fortius style of Alessandrini and Il Giardino Armonico. Le Petite Bande’s performance is a pleasure and a treat, but Egarr - whose recording since originally reviewing it in 2009 has only risen in my estimation - remains the current top-choice for non-aggressively purling PI Brandenburgs.
 
Jens F. Laurson

Masterwork Index: Brandenburg Concertos

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Error processing SSI file