|
|
Brandenburg Concertos BWV 1046-1051
Ludwig Güttler & Virtuoso Saxoniae
Güttler’s Brandenburgs |
|
Bradley Lehman wrote (October 17, 2001):
Since finding it as a cutout set in a shop Saturday, I've really been enjoying Berlin Classics 0011452: two-disc set of the Brandenburgs played by the Virtuosi Saxoniae conducted by Ludwig Guttler. Further: it's one of the best I can remember ever hearing on modern instruments.
The concerti were recorded in four different months of 1991. This band lets the music flow naturally in moderate tempos. (Exception: the trio #2 of Brandenburg 1 is the fastest I've ever heard.) I like that easygoing feel, the buoyancy. And I especially like the rich variety of articulative nuance the whole ensemble brings to the lines. They let the notes be grouped into twos, threes, fours, fives within the longer phrases: it's like the natural syllabication of speech within forward-moving sentences. And it makes the players sound continually alert and involved, even though the music is seemingly moving along under its own steam. There is something to listen to at several levels simultaneously.
Andreas Lorenz plays the oboe solos, Roland Straumer the violin solos, Eckart Haupt the flute, and Susanne Erhardt and Uta Hoffmann play recorders. The continuo group is Joachim Bischof, cello; Werner Zeibig, bass; Friedrich Kircheis, harpsichord. They add a second harpsichord (Anne Hoff) in concerto #3.
Guttler himself plays the corno da caccia (hunting horn) instead of trumpet! It is an octave lower than the trumpet that is usually played in #2, and makes a tremendous difference. (The Neville Marriner/Thurston Dart set in the 1960s did this, too, using a horn.) This is the "Leipzig version" BWV 1047a instead of the familiar 1047. The blend is excellent. It sounds like four equal soloists instead of Dominating Trumpet Plus Three. After hearing it this way a few times I hardly want to hear it the more normal way anymore.
The English notes say that the first movement of the concerto #2 is reused in cantata 174, but that's wrong: it's concerto #3. The German and French notes get it right, so this is just a typo.
So, all around, this set is delightful.
Their set of the four orchestral suites is good, too: Berlin Classics 0090022 with all four suites on a single disc and a similar style of playing.
And their "Konzertante Oboenmusik des Barock" (oboe concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, Pisendel, and Hertel) is one of those "drop everything and buy this" discs for the way they play the BWV 1055. Count the rest of that disc as a bonus; it's worth it for that one Bach concerto. Andreas Lorenz is so rhythmically loose and expressive with the solo, and the band makes great contrasts in their strong-and-weak articulations. Wow! 0011512.
|
| |
|
Brandenburg Concertos BWV 1046-1051 : Details
Recordings:
Reviews of Individual Recordings: Güttler’s Brandenburgs | Review: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1, 2 & 5 - conducted by Karl Richter | Review of Brandenburg Concertos by Tafelmusik
General Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Discussions of Individual Recordings: Brandenburg Concertos - R. Alessandrini | Brandenburg Concertos - R. Egarr | Brandenburg Concertos - N. Harnoncourt | Brandenburg Concertos - O. Klemperer |
|
Ludwig Güttler : Short Biography | Virtuosi Saxoniae | Recordings | General Discussions
Reviews of Instrumental Recordings: Güttler’s Brandenburgs |
|
|
