Favourites Performances of the Brandenburg Concertos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na5NE-vE9vU

An example of MW's approach to the Baroque style in two arias from Handel's Messiah recorded in March 1940. Very special indeed, and the tenor really is an angel in these!

George

These performances are very fine indeed. Can be found at:

classicorecords.dk



ATB from George

Some other performances I have owned:

Pinnock - DG Archive - Very fine.
English Chamber Orchestra - IMP Pickwick - solid but dull.
English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Britten - Decca - Very weighty, and loud performances, that are solid but not possessed of the necessary fantasy in the music [IMO].
Bath Festival Orchestra, Menuhin - EMI/HMV - some very lovely playing but strangely terrible recording for stereo.
ASMF, Marriner - Philips - Very polished, but in my view somewhat without the necessary magic.

I have another set played by La Petite Bande from live concerts but as they are not commercial releases or available at all I shall refrain from comment beyond the thought that they will never leave.

Anyone else have a favourite performance of them!?

George

PS: The Wöldike set seems unable to be levered out of the CD player at the moment, and only the second half of a heavy week at work has meant that I keep going to sleep! Nothing to do with the music making. The history of these performances is more involved than most sets, which seem to be recorded in one set of sessions as a rule, whereas this newly issued set was the result of two distinct sets of sessions, with two different sets of players. This is not significant for the approach so much as the fact that half [1 to 3] come from early LP and the second three [4 to 6] come from late 78s.

George,

I have the ASMF/Marriner performance and also the Pinnock. I agree with your assessment of both of these. Recently I have acquired a performance on period instruments by a group whom I had not heard of before. They are called Il Giardino Armonico, and are directed by Giovanni Antonini. The performance is on the Warner Elatus label. I find it much livelier than the Pinnock, and of these three sets this one is currently my favorite.

Peter

Dear Peter,

Thanks for your post! I really enjoy the crisp and unblended sounds of the old instruments [when I used to play the bass, I resolutely stuck to gut strings, and would sometimes be the only player in a string section of fifty with gut strings, though they blend nicely with steel, the other way round is not the case], so that I hope the favourite Brandenburg sets will include some less known HIP style performamnces!

Thanks, and now who else? The range is important here. It is not just my opinion, but a broad examination that I would hope will result from this!

ATB from George

Well, I will confess to being very fond of both the new (much to George and Poul's dismay) and old Pinnock and I greatly enjoyed those by the HM Linde Consort that I listened to this afternoon (thanks to George, who was quite right that I wouldn't be able to stop at the first disc).

However, if push came to shove, I think my favourite set would have to be that of the Jacques Loussier Trio - not very purist I admit, but what they do with the 5th concerto in particular is magnificent.

I am very curious to hear Britten's recording, but I haven't got round to picking it up.


regards, Tam

Dear Tam,

Lousier may not be very pure but he does no diservice to Bach! I would prefer Lousier's non-pure renditions [and his is a position of presenting Bach "refracted" through his own arrangements and without apology] to those of Gould who pretends to be pure, but is much less so in terms of spirit!

Bach should "swing."

George

quote:

Originally posted by Tam:
I am very curious to hear Britten's recording, but I haven't got round to picking it up.

Dear Tam,
To be frank I do not like Britten´s recording at all. It is a big-band modern-instruments moderately romantizised Bach bringing associations to the recordings of Karajan, Maazel and Abbado. Some nice solo work from Richard Adenay (traverse flute) and Emmanuel Hurwitz (violin) though, but not sufficient to save the project. Especially tedious is the harpsichordist (the renowned Philip Ledger), who´s thunderous continuo is all too audible and busy in the soundscape, and who´s solo harpsichord in Concerto no.5 is bombastic to the degree which would make even Rafael Puyana envious, and with ever changing registrations totally out of style. There are so many other and better recordings of these works.
Regards, Poul

It is quite fascinating how fine these Mogens Wöldike led performances are. Like many great recorded performances, not all their wisdom and good musical sense is revealed on the first or even second listening.

I had something of a reservation about the speed of the Second movement of the Sixth Concerto with strikes me as fast, possibly too fast, but that is only an opinion, rather than definable in any absolute sense.

The Fifth concerto strikes me as both sane and wonderful. The two aspects do not always run together.

The Fourth is easily the most lovely recording of it I know, and for once the music is given all the space to breath, and reveal its intricate glory. I have never heard Klemperer perform this, but I cannot imagine even his sense of architecture and detail would produce a finer rendering.

The Third is full of wonderful playing and a lucidity, which as in the fourth allows for an unusually fine appreciation of the middle voices. The Violas really do have some wonderful music to play in their parts!

The Second has a splendid balance of Recorders and Bach Trumpet, which rare enough, but that is only the start! The trumpeter is an artist, and one gifted with a fine technique so that the effect is finding the music revealed, rather than being amazed that the part is played [largely] without any mishap!

So far the highlights have been the Fifth Concerto and the Fourth, but the First Concerto is definitely cut from cloth of the same high quality. Particularly noteworthy are the wonderful French Horns. Like the trumpeter in the second concerto, they are untroubled by the huge difficulty of their parts and the result is great music making rather than a sense of strain. No one movement in this is finer than any other, because there is no weakness at all.

Overall the main characteristic of these performances is an aim to present the many and various voices of the band in phenomenally well balanced conjunction, so that for once one can really appreciate the interplay of lines as much as any individual line at any time. Bach wrote all these lines together, and together they are presented with not only meticulous care, but also genuine and original musical insight.

At the time there were only two recordings of these in circulation: Adolph Busch's estimable set recorded in London, and Alfred Cortot's Paris set, both recorded by EMI.

As these Danish performances were being recorded in 1950/53/54, so August Wenzinger's [1950/53] almost period instrument performances being documented by DG Archive. That is another favourite of mine!

Of the moderns I still enjoy the HM Linde set, long since deleted by EMI Virgin.

George

PS: For individual Concerti my ordering of choices would be:

First: Busch and Wöldike [equal, if obviously contrasted], Wenzinger, Linde. All grand though
Second: Linde, Busch, Wenzinger, Wöldike.
Third: Linde, Wöldike, Busch, Wenzinger.
Fourth: Wöldike, Linde, Busch, Wensinger.
Fifth: Wöldike, Busch, Linde, Wenzinger.
Sixth: Linde, Wenzinger, [It is musically equal, but the Archive recording makes a proper meal of recording the continuo Harpsichord, and its action is equal in the balance to any voice among the strings, sadly], then Busch and Wöldike.

In each case the favourite mentioned is also my absolute favourite in any recording I have found.

In only one movement from all these recordings do I find something I do not particularly like, and that is the rather flowing [read too fast for me!] reading of Adagio ma non tanto for the Second Movement of the Sixth Concerto as led by Wöldike. Even then I am growing to at least admire its strength, if not perhaps its beauty!

Hors concours in the Fifth Concerto is the recording done in 1952 with members of the Philharmonia Orchestra with Edwin Fischer. This is exceptionally glorious in my view, though like Busch's keyboard soloist, Rudolf Serkin, Fischer uses a piano! Strangely it actually reminds me of the musical approach of Koppel [playing a Harpsichord] in the Wöldike recording, which might just seem a strange conclusion. But then Koppel was a pianist as well as composer! Better on the Harpsichord though!!!

George

Dear Poul,

Thanks for the summary, I suspect I may end up with them anyway one day despite that. Sometimes you need to hear something for yourself even if it won't quite work.


Dear George,

I suspect the swing is why I like Loussier so much. Of course, I should clarify that I would never want to without the likes of Pinnock or HM Linde.


regards, Tam

quote:

Originally posted by Tam:
Well, I will confess to being very fond of both the new (much to George and Poul's dismay) and old Pinnock and I greatly enjoyed those by the HM Linde Consort that I listened to this afternoon (thanks to George, who was quite right that I wouldn't be able to stop at the first disc).

...

regards, Tam

Dear Tam,

The only reason I did not put the older [circa 1980?] DG Arvhive Pinnock recording into my ordering was that it is a good ten years since I had them, but I definately liked them, even more than that in parts! I gave them to a friend to assist in breaking the ice with Bach. Not the first or the last time for that I expect.

They make a splendid and easily obtained recommendation as the introduction to these works in my view. Central, and well made readings that do more than just nod in the direction of good H[istorically] I[nformed] P[erformance] practice and style.

I am much less convinced by what I have heard of the new Avie recording of Pinnock's latest thoughts, but it is all opinion really! I could never be dismayed by people getting to know and love this music, and if it via a performance I personally cannot get on with, then my opinion of the actual performance is of no consequence!

Have you listened to that incredible performance with Furtwangler of the Fifth live at Salzburg yet? I was fascinated by it, but eventually found that I had absorbed what I could from it!

George

I've been listening to my sets of the Brandenburg's, inspired by this thread. My collection is in the rebuilding stage, so it is a paltry mixture. I'll add comments (based on memory) of every set I've heard in part or full:

Klemperer (Vox): Clean, focused, a little severe but almost ideal in it's drive and lucid balancing of all the voices.

Klemperer (EMI): Less compelling than the Vox set.

Levine, Ravinia Festval Orchestra (RCA): Recorded live in the 70's. I have good memories of the 5th and 2nd. Not ideal but you could do a lot worse.

Casals, Marlboro Festival Orch.(Sony): Atrocious intonation and thick Beethoven like textures. Surely Casals is a romantic at heart. A lot of detail is obscured in Casals brusque, oversimplified interpretation. There are some wonderful moments, however, like the freshness and spontaneity of the opening of the fourth. Rudolf Serkin's piano in the 5th has that odd cheeriness and musical focus, along with his usual clunky and clangorous piano tone.
Not a set I return to much but I'm glad I own it.

Karajan (DG): In a word, "sleepy". Bach as a soporific. Strange...

Ristenpart, Chamber Orchestra of the Sarre: From old Nonesuch Lps. I wish I still owned it. Excellent ensemble and very good recorded sound.

Zuckerman, Los Angeles Philharmonic (DG): Picked it up at a book sale for 10p. Worth every cent ! The best thing I can say is to damn it with the oft used back handed compliment of 'well played'. Little else to recommend in this recording. Bach does not swing ! At least the Casals set has that virtue !

Leonhardt ( on ABC from the late 70's): My first exposure to these works eons ago. Nice valveless trumpet playing in the 2nd. Nothing bad to report on this one.

Thurston Dart, Promusica of London (L'Oiseau Lyre): Pioneering HIP recording by foremost Bach scholar. A little old fashioned but one of the better accounts. Nice, slightly romanticized melancholy in the slow movements.


Winscherman, German Bach Soloists: On an old Laserlight CD (remember those). Very good. Highly recommended at the budget price.


Noyes

For attention of George (primarily)
OK, so I know very little about classical music.
I have, & much enjoy the Brandenburg concertos on vinyl. The version is on Deutsche Grammophon, No.1,2 & 3 Konzerte, H.v.K conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker.
My question is that I have very little experience of comparing differing performances of the same piece.
Would it be possible for George or others to recommend a contrasting performance to my existing version, so that I can sit down & listen to the differences & nuances?
Maybe its all a bit over my head, by I'd like to give it a go, non-the-less.
Matt.

Dear Matt,

Please send me an email. Address in profile. ATB from George

Bach should swing - or gently sway - if nothing else! George

quote:

Bach should swing - or gently sway - if nothing else! George

Agreed, George...as a great lover of JSB's organ repetoire if my feet aren't gently tapping during a fugue..well then that performance is not for me!

I would happily recommend to anyone the performances of all the Brandenburgs by Concerto Italianounder Rinaldo Alessandrini.

They have an openness to the sound which is really extraordinary and they have great vivacity.

Of any of the Brandenburgs I have encountered these ar the performances I now return to almost exclusively.

Recorded on Naive catalogue number OP 30412.

Cheers

Norman

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Have you listened to that incredible performance with Furtwangler of the Fifth live at Salzburg yet? I was fascinated by it, but eventually found that I had absorbed what I could from it!

Have just finished listening to it. As you say, fascinating.

regards, Tam

I first came to the Brandenbergs via Walter Carlos, before he decided to be Wendy Carlos instead. It still gets me going.
Of the recent versions, I prefer those which are played on modern instruments. I have Britten and Marriner on Decca and Philips respectively. I enjoy both for their differing qualities.
Taste is a funny thing....
Ken

George,
I have sent you an email. please let me know if you don't receive it.
Regards
Matt.

Dear Matt,

Received and replied!

I seriously recomend that for the Cello Suites people snap up the DG Arhive release played by Fournier. It is only £11 on Amazon.co.uk and lovely. Lovely like Grumiaux's set of the Sonatas and Partitias for Solo Violin on Philips!!!

ATB from George

After almost two nths with these Mogens Wöldike performances, I have concluded that they amount to a very fine recommendation indeed.

The recordings are 1950-54 veterans of course, but convey everything that matters, and the majestic conception of the music - in that the fullmajesty of the part-writing emerges in it full due - is enough for me to say they have become my prefered choice, but not displacing my affection for Adolf Busch's set or the Linde Consort recordings.

To get into the top three for me is quite an achievement. The contemporay set from August Wenzinger seems to have been displaced by this newly issued set for me, even though the Wenzinger is probably more HIP correct.

The set should be easily obtained on the internet if anyone is curious. [Details in the first two posts].

George

One set that has completely eluded me is the first recording with Klemperer on Vox. I do know that for the trumpet part in the Second Concerto Klemperer [at the time] advocated using a soprano saxophone as being an instrument that had a similar "clarino" sound to the high "Bach Trumpet" but was more playable without the technical strain showing through.

Of course there are many very fine "clarino trumpet" players nowadays, so such a substitution would no longer be necessary, but if Klemperer used a saxophone in the Vox recording it would make for a fascinating listen.

Dear Noye's Fludde, does the Vox recording employ the saxophone, or did they manage to find a good real trumpet player?

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
One set that has completely eluded me is the first recording with Klemperer on Vox....
does the Vox recording employ the saxophone, or did they manage to find a good real trumpet player?

Yes, a soprano saxophone played by Marcel Mules, who also was the soloist of Casals´recording from the Prades festival (1950). I think the sounding result is acceptable, at least when compared to the hybrid high Bach-trumpet, which also is unauthentic. Listening to early recordings of the Second Brandenburg shows very fast that only a few trumpeters mastered the part sufficiently at that time, so the use of a saxophone was reasonable. Marcel Mules plays with agility and panache and makes a good case for his own participation.