Bach, J S: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1-6 BWV1046-1051 (complete)

“These are fabulous performances in every sense. The playing is so vibrant, so alive that resistance is futile...these recordings demonstrate intelligent period practice in the best imaginable light...What the players of the Orchestra of the Antipodes can do, effortlessly, is spring the rhythms and give the solo lines plenty of character.” The Arts Desk, 9th June 2012

“Conducting J. S. Bach isn’t Abbado’s usual activity. But he buckles to it with joy, humanity and an Italianate slant that turns these cornerstone suites into outpourings of instrumental song. The players are the all-star Orchestra Mozart, with Giuliano Carmignola the demon lead fiddler, caught live in 2007.” The Times, 12th March 2011 ****

“The excitement is palpable, reflected in smiling glances between the players, bodies swaying through musical suspensions, a sense of uninhibited joy… The playing is stylish throughout: ornaments are apt, all the more telling for their restraint; trills are paced to match mood, languid in slow movements, sparkling in allegros.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2009

“Here Claudio Abbado is gambolling among the Brandenburg Concertos in this straightforward TV-style concert film, recorded in the classic 19th-century opera house at Reggio Emilia during an Italian tour in spring 2007. The orchestra is at first glance a curious gathering, mixing 'Baroque' players such as violinist Giuliano Carmignola and harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone with 'modern' names such as trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich and 'un-Baroque' recorder-player Michala Petri. Furthermore, a look round the instruments reveals mostly modern models, some hybrids (for instance Jacques Zoon's wooden, multi-keyed flute) and a sprinkling of Baroque bows. Mind you, most younger players these days are well versed in Baroque style whatever they play on, and the tenor of these performances is firmly consistent with current ideas of what Baroque music ought to sound like.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Does the world need another set of Brandenburgs? Yes, when they are as freshly minted and as adventurously sonorous as this marvellous set...Abbado leads supple, imaginative readings; a great deal of the strong character is provided by his leader, violinist Giuliano Carmignola, and there is a brilliant harpsichord solo from Ottavio Dantone in the fifth concerto.” The Observer, 13th March 2011

“This new recording of the Brandenburg Concertos exhibits all the virtues that one associates with Claudio Abbado: clarity, lucidity, balance, a sense of proportion, and, above all, an indefinable yet audible 'oneness' with the music. Dionysus is present in these performances, but he subsumed within their underlying Apollonian quality.” International Record Review, April 2011

“the audio-only experience draws out a super-contented gestural world which had only intermittently communicated itself before...The hallmark of this set is the ambition to create lithe, beautiful and elegant statements in which witty, sophisticated dialogues are carried off within a heady textural landscape...The Fifth spins like a happy top...These are life-affirming live performances...which glide effortlessly on to the high table.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2011

“…a constant delight. …Katie Debretzeni deserves the highest praise: her phrasing, punctuation and inflective charm contain all the communicative apparatus of the finest oratory, bringing, to my ears at least, something entirely fresh to this sublime music.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009 *****

“Gardiner’s Bachian zeal hovers over the performances: these are refreshingly unmannered accounts, brilliantly played... The Fourth — for violin and two recorders — and Fifth — with solo violin, flute and harpsichord — have rarely sounded more intimate, while the all-string concertos, the Third and the violinless Sixth, tingle with the spirit of baroque dance.” Sunday Times, 15th November 2009 ****

“[Gardiner] lets his band get on with it and the results...are superb. The English Baroque Soloists, led by Kati Debretzeni, listen to each other like a jazz group, mirroring and echoing the other players, responding to subtle changes of dynamics or tempo.” The Telegraph, 13th January 2010 ****

“…these performances are recognisable enough as being in the Gardiner mould. There is the usual clarity of texture and detail; few accounts of Nos 3 and 6 have such chiselled edges and unobtrusively assertive inner parts. Tempi are brisk, and while they are not hard-driven in the way they might have been 20 years ago, the finale of No 2 charges to a startlingly abrupt finish. ...these are undeniably Brandenburgs of flair and understanding.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2010

“this disc stands up on its own quite simply as a smashing performance that has evidently been recorded for sheer delight in the music...The ensemble playing is a model of cohesive teamwork, but the players also shine as individuals in the many virtuoso solo passages” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 4th November 2009

“The playing is ravishing in the chamber-music slow-movement textures. …a recording you must hear, if only to hear how the boundaries of these extraordinary concertos can be stretched.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 ****

“Though there are already CD versions of the Brandenburg Concertos to suit every taste, Richard Egarr's recordings still manage to carve out a distinctive niche of their own. Anyone with perfect pitch will soon notice that the concertos are delivered at a pitch significantly lower even than the baroque pitch often used for period-instrument performances: the Academy of Ancient Music tunes to A=392 Hz, effectively a whole tone lower than modern concert pitch, which enables them to use the French-model wind instruments that were widely played in Germany in Bach's time, and with just one instrument to a part throughout the orchestra, the textures have a warm, chamber-style intensity. The stratospherically high trumpet part in the second concerto loses all its glare (though the recorder in the same concerto gets swamped), while the solo violin in the fourth and fifth concertos can weave its delicate tracery with perfect naturalness. Though Egarr adds a guitar and theorbo to the continuo, the harmony still lacks definition, while the sheer loving detail of the performances sometimes blunts their edge.” The Guardian, 6th March 2009 ***

“…it is noticeable that these performances have moved away from the clipped articulate gestures of recent decades to embrace something of the older tradition of shapely long lines and smooth phrases. It gives the music an easy feel, relaxed and friendly as befits its chamber status...” Gramophone Magazine, June 2009

“I can’t recommend them highly enough. I’ve listened to the Boston Baroque/Marin Pearlman collaboration as well as the famous Marriner/Academy recordings. They don’t hold a candle to the finesse and flavor of the Egarr set … This set of concertos has moved to the head of the class and I wouldn’t want to be without it. Extremely infectious music, most highly recommended.” Hi-Fi News, September 2012