Freiburger Brandenburgs

Freiburger Barockorchester (Harmonia Mundi, 2014) Bach, Brandenburg Concertos, Freiburger Barockorchester (DVD, 2000)

Charles T. Downey, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the Library of Congress (Washington Post, February 6, 2014)

The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra is on a Bach World Tour, and the first stop in the United States was at the Library of Congress on Tuesday. The tour is promoting the group’s new recording of the Brandenburg Concertos, coming out next month. One might think that the last thing the world needs is another recording of these Bach masterworks, but the crowd packed into Coolidge Auditorium knew better, happy to hear a performance of all six of these delightful concertos.

This German ensemble’s first recording of the Brandenburgs was a DVD made in the room for which Bach possibly intended them, the recently restored Spiegelsaal (Hall of Mirrors) in the palace of Bach’s employer in Köthen, and one continues to hear an intimate knowledge of these scores in the playing of all the Freiburg musicians. The visual joy of watching these performances live was considerable, too, especially in the third concerto, a sort of wreath of triple strands, where one can watch motifs as they cross the three intertwined string sections, or move from one violinist or violist to the next and on down the line. [Continue reading]

Freiburger Barockorchester
Bach, Brandenburg Concertos
Library of Congress

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Richard Egarr's Brandenburg Concertos
Il Giardino Armonico / Academy of Ancient Music (I)
Complete performance, Academy of Ancient Music (II)