Search - Bach, Harnoncourt, Cmw :: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6

Beautifully played on baroque instruments

Gulley Jimson | Bethesda, MD | 11/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this CD after a disappointing experience with the Britten/Mariner recording, which happened to be the cheapest one at the store where I was browsing. The piece was played on modern instruments, but the sound wasn't particularly good, and because of either the conductor or the sound technician, none of the instruments sounded like they were playing together. Everyone appeared to playing in a separate room, waiting for their solo. In pieces of such polyphonic complexity, it was hard to get a sense of the shifting patterns in the music, because the sound and the interpretation made everything feel confused, or placed one instrument so far in the forefront that I couldn't follow the others.



So I picked up this CD on Gramophone's recommendation, without hearing anything else about it, and only had to listen to it a few times to decide to sell the old one. I've never been insistent that baroque music be played on period instruments. I have Bach's violin concertos on modern instruments, and I actually prefer a lot of his harpsichord music on the piano. But the argument that modern instruments aren't ideal for some music seems to apply to these pieces, at least in my limited experience. The Harnoncourt is much more cohesive than the Britten, and you get the sense that the piece is being played as it should be. In each of the concertos you can hear the interaction between the instruments while still making out the individual melody lines. Using original instruments mutes some of the brightness of modern ones, and doesn't distance them from each other.



This recording also has beautiful sound, and the old instruments have no problems with squeakiness, raspiness, or going out of tune. For the most part, it's hard to put one's finger on exactly how they sound different: the flutes sound more wooden, Irish - you can feel the breath going through them - and the violins are sharper, less full. The second and third suites for orchestra are good additions to fill out the running time. I don't have enough experience to comment on any of Harnoncourt's interpretive decisions, but I know that I feel I've experienced the beauty of this music more on this recording than on Britten and Mariner's. Highly recommended."

Excessively dry

Sebastian Heinz | Madison, WI, USA | 11/22/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am not a big fan of this recording. I applaud the effort of original instruments, but it gets in the way of the enjoyment here, the sound is just too thin for my taste. The recording quality doesn't help - to my ears, it sounds tinny and dry. I like the Elatus release of the recording by Il Giardino Armenico much better - it has a much fuller, richer sound."