The Brook Street Band, feted for their imaginative and stylish Handel recordings offer their first of the music of J S Bach.
The Brook Street Band burst on to the scene in 2003 with their Avie debut, the world premiere recording of Handel’s ‘Oxford’ Water Music, a genuine chamber arrangement of the composer’s ever-popular suite which earned the period-instrument ensemble an Editor’s Choice from Gramophone. Since then the all-girl group, named for the London street where Handel lived and composed for most of his working life in England, has released three further Handel surveys which prove their own adept skills at arranging.
They now apply the age-old practice to their first recording of the music of J S Bach, adapting his Organ Sonatas to their own instrumentation of two violins, harpsichord and cello. The result is yet another unique approach from the Brook Street Band, whose sheer pleasure in sharing this wonderful music shines though in their radiant renditions.
“The Band is as deliciously poised and pertinent as ever.” BBC Music Magazine
“The smartest new baroque band around.” The Times
“Stylish and imaginative…Their pleasure in the music is infectious.” Gramophone
December 2010
****
“The Brook Street Band plays stylishly, with well-nigh impeccable intonation and tremendous verve...the vitality is riveting and the counterpoint enthralling. Delightful.”
January 2011
“unaffected performances of remarkable freshness and vitality...The variety of string articulation together with Gibley's discrete harmonisations further serve both to enliven and to elucidate Bach's musical arguments. Superb.”
March 2011
****
“The Brook Street Band has a trademark playing style that's communicative,energetic, and very, very zingy in every department...the playing has such deftness and verve that time flies by...In chamber music from this period, you won't find more winning and winsome playing.”
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