Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 4, 5 & 6 (perf. Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman, Director)
Almost every Classical music starter or essentials or whatever list that tells you how to build a Classical library lists Bach’s Brandenburg concerti as something you must have. And they’re right: you do, because they’re crazy awesome as well as crazy accessible. They serve as an excellent tutorial on how to listen to Classical music while sacrificing nothing in terms of musical quality.
You’ve already heard more of these than you know. I did. You probably know the first and third movements of Concerto No. 5 as well as the third movement of Concerto No. 6, which, with its darkly-tinged instrumentation and sublimely beautiful (really, they’re all sublimely beautiful) melodies is my favorite of these latter three
I’ve written before on MPL about how I normally hate stuff performed on period instruments as anything beyond a historical curiosity. Pearlman and Boston Baroque pull it off here, though, and it works beautifully. I’m giving most of the credit for that, to Bach (you can never go wrong doing that) and Recording Engineer Jack Renner. It’s worth nothing that I find the version of the first movement of Concerto No. 5 on Sunday With the Times superior to this one, and I think that one was played on modern instruments.
So, there may be better versions of these concerti…I don’t know. But they’re so incredible that you probably can’t go wrong with any recording of them, and you certainly wouldn’t regret picking up this one.
Rating:
Mixers: Concerto No. 6, Movements 1-3
Keepers: Concerto No. 4, Movements 1 and 3
Filed Between: 6 French Suites/Italian Concerto (perf. András Schiff) and Musical Offering