Brandenburg Concerti

[Larry Kart]

Been on a Brandenburg kick lately, am open to a fair number of styles.

Favorites:

Benjamin Britten, English Chamber Orchestra (London)

Szymon Goldberg, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (Philips)

Renaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano  -- HIP, very zippy ((Naive)

 

Positive so far but not sure yet:

Richard Kapp, Philharmonia Virtuosi (their 1991 recording on ESS.A.Y; they did an earlier one for Sony)

Trash:

Phiilp Pickett, New London Consort (L' Oiseau-Lyre) -- I endorsed this on another thread some ways back; boy was I wrong
 

Need to listen to more or again:

Casals, Marlboro (Columbia) -- Concerto 1 was turgid, but IIRC there are revelations further on

Karl Ristenpart, Chamber Orchestra of the Saar (Nonesuch) -- fondly remembered

 

 

[Chuck Nessa]

Do you have an allergy for Pinnock? Otherwise I don't see how you missed it.

[Larry Kart]

33 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Do you have an allergy for Pinnock? Otherwise I don't see how you missed it.

Never heard them. There's lots of Brandenburgs that I've never heard. OTOH, what Pinnock I have heard, especially his solo recordings, I didn't like much or at all (e.g. his Partitas).

[Д.Д.]

Cafe Zimmermann's versions are my favorite. Energetic HIP performances in outstanding sound. 

[mikeweil]

The one closest to using all the knowledge accumulated on tempos, instruments, and ensemble sizes over the last decades, is the one by Concerto Köln - they even had somebody reconstruct the "fiauti d'echo" Bach asks for, and use German model harpsichords. I find it very satisfying and very entertaining to listen to at the same time.

If you prefer modern instruments, try the Berlin Baroque Soloists, who invited Reinhard Goebel to supervise their recording. They wanted his enormous knowledge  and he was able to add some new aspects he couldn't know or execute with Musica Antiqua Köln twenty years earlier.

[mikeweil]

These two received rave reviews in the latest volume of Germany's leading early music magazine, Concerto:

Edited January 13, 2019 by mikeweil

[king ubu]

I've bought my first Zefiro disc last year and enjoyed it a lot, so I might go for their recording ...

Will hear the concertos live on Thursday, with La Scintilla (Zurich opera's HIP ensemble) led by Riccardo Minasi (the first of a series of concerts, I think he'll stick around for a while as a guest conductor/leader, this season four concerts are scheduled and I plan to go to the third and fourth, too, skipping Vivaldi's four seasons).

[psu_13]

I have always enjoyed the Neville Marriner recordings.

The newer more "period" style recordings by Apollo's Fire and Jeannette Sorrell are also good.

Finally, don't sleep on Wendy Carlos.

 

[mandrill]

I like Hermann Scherchen Brandenburgs.

[Alexander Hawkins]

I'm not sure if this is available to listen to outside the UK (certainly the download seems to be UK only, but streaming may be fine?), but I always enjoy listening to this BBC programme, and that's the link to a comparative listening they did of Brandenburg recordings.

[paul secor]

Doesn't seem to be available in the U.S. - at least not for me.