Johann Sebastian Bach is, without a doubt, my favorite composer of all time. I find his music incredibly alive, complex, it fills me with a feeling that no other music can, it makes me doubt my knowledge of the languages I speak when I can’t ascribe any particular emotional label to some of his most arresting passages. His music makes sense musically first and foremost. To explain Bach’s music, you have to do it using musical terms. To like it, to enjoy it, we have to separate music from other arts and manifestations and listen to it only from its own perspective.
I have always been baffled at the magnificent work of the Eisenach master, amazed at his counterpoint, at his melodic grace, at the vitality, energy and dynamics of his music. While some people think of Bach as the ultimate artisan in music, a cold and cerebral genius, I hear his compositions and I see a connection of a higher level that I just fail to see anywhere else. Whether we believe or not in superior being is another matter (I don’t), but it’s clear nevertheless that Bach was inspired by sources of a definite different –higher- nature.
Of his gigantic output, one of my favorite works are the outstanding “Brandenburg Concertos” (whether they should be called that way should be discussed in a different forum), probably the most fantastic sets of orchestral music written before the arrival of the great symphonists of the classical and romantic eras. The degree of musical magic that the master can generate is nothing short of unbelievable. With just a handful of ideas he can create movements of the highest polyphonic complexity, and at the same time his gift for melody assures moments of more down-to-earth emotions.
Thus, I approached this recording of the first three concertos with optimism. After all, Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields have always been favorites of mine for pre-romantic music. Their use of modern instruments assured me that the intensity of the works would be fully conveyed and exploited.
The actual results of my experience have been great, tough less than perfect. The playing is superb, no questions about that. All solo instruments, from the violin(o) of the first concert to the trumpet of the second concerto, execute their task perfectly. The orchestra is top-notch, with a string section that captures all the energy of the phrases and creates a rich texture for the soloist instruments to play against.
The only little qualm I have with this recording lies in the tempos. At times the music moves just too fast. The grandiose opening of the third concerto, for example, it’s agile and joyful, yet it somewhat lacks the grace of other slightly-slower versions. The incredible third movement, in all its contrapuntal excellence, passes by like a tornado, dazzling the listener with its brilliance but also leaving him kind of wanting to go back and catch his breath.
It’s the style that Marriner instills to the music that tends to get on my nerves. It’s like he was directing Mozart, not Bach. For a few seconds, I actually thought of the music of the Salzburg master when listening to the treatment that the conductor selected for the string section. This, and the totally absurd addition of a movement of another work to “complete” the third concert and give it a second, slow movement (in a work that couldn't be more “complete” as it is, with the two chords that separate the first from the third movement), is my only complaint about this version and the reason this album full of the best music available doesn’t get a perfect score from me.
4/5
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