Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concertos The English Baroque Soloists & Sir John Eliot Gardiner

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046:
• 1Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: I. —03:43
• 2Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: II. Adagio03:51
• 3Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: III. Allegro03:52
• 4Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: IV. Minuet01:15
• 5Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: IV. Trio I01:32
• 6Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: IV. Minuet da capo00:39
• 7Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: IV. Polacca01:46
• 8Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: IV. Minuet00:37
• 9Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: IV. Trio II01:00
• 10Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: IV. Minuet da capo00:47
• Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047:
• 11Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: I. [Allegro]04:25
• 12Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: II. Andante03:40
• 13Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: III. Allegro assai02:35
• Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048:
• 14Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048: I. [Allegro]05:23
• 15Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048: II. Adagio01:55
• 16Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048: III. Allegro04:41
• Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049:
• 17Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049: I. Allegro06:32
• 18Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049: II. Andante03:46
• 19Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049: III. Presto04:32
• Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050:
• 20Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: I. Allegro09:17
• 21Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: II. Affettuoso06:07
• 22Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: III. Allegro05:07
• Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat Major, BWV 1051:
• 23Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat Major, BWV 1051: I. —05:32
• 24Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat Major, BWV 1051: II. Adagio ma non tanto04:37
• 25Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat Major, BWV 1051: III. Allegro05:14
• Total Runtime01:32:25

Info for Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concertos

John Eliot Gardiner and his superb period-instrument chamber orchestra, English Baroque Soloists, record their unique interpretation of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos for the very first time.

Gardiner only conducts two of the six concertos but rehearsed the others with the players. The responsibility of performing the remaining four is left to the hand-picked musicians of the English Baroque Soloists led by the brilliant, Kati Debretzeni, a true Konzertmeisterin and the inspirational presiding virtuoso of this project.

This recording follows a phenomenal 11-concert residency at the Spitalfieds Music Winter Festival in December 2008 and January 2009. John Eliot Gardiner led the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir in performances of JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Brandenburg Concertos and Motets. Every concert was well received by public and press alike, with standing ovations from the sell-out audiences and high critical acclaim:

"Gardiner encouraged rampaging exuberance from his excellent horns, subtle dynamic variations from oboes and strings, and some unusually complex phrasing…delivered with such conviction.” (The Times)

The six “Brandenburg” Concertos, described by Bach as ‘Concertos for several instruments’, are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque. Now considered a benchmark of Baroque music, the concertos still have the power to move people almost three centuries later.

"…a constant delight. …Kati Debretzeni deserves the highest praise: her phrasing, punctuation and inflective charm contain all the communicative apparatus of the finest oratory, bringing, to my ears at least, something entirely fresh to this sublime music." (BBC Music Magazine)

"this disc stands up on its own quite simply as a smashing performance that has evidently been recorded for sheer delight in the music...The ensemble playing is a model of cohesive teamwork, but the players also shine as individuals in the many virtuoso solo passages" (BBC)

"…these performances are recognisable enough as being in the Gardiner mould. There is the usual clarity of texture and detail; few accounts of Nos 3 and 6 have such chiselled edges and unobtrusively assertive inner parts. Tempi are brisk, and while they are not hard-driven in the way they might have been 20 years ago, the finale of No 2 charges to a startlingly abrupt finish. ...these are undeniably Brandenburgs of flair and understanding." (Gramophone Magazine)

Katie Debretzeni, violin
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Sir John Eliot Gardiner
stands as an international leader in today's musical life, respected as one of the world's most innovative and dynamic musicians, constantly at the forefront of enlightened interpretation. His work as Artistic Director of his Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique has marked him out as a central figure in the early music revival and a pioneer of historically informed performance. As a regular guest of the world's leading symphony orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Gardiner conducts repertoire from the 17th to the 20th century.

The extent of Gardiner's repertoire is illustrated in the extensive catalogue of award-winning recordings with his own ensembles and leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic on major labels (including Decca, Philips, Erato and 30 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon), as wide-ranging as Mozart, Schumann, Berlioz, Elgar and Kurt Weill, in addition to works by Renaissance and Baroque composers. Since 2005 the Monteverdi ensembles have recorded on their independent label, Soli Deo Gloria, established to release the live recordings made during Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, for which he received Gramophone’s 2011 Special Achievement Award and a Diapason d’or de l’année 2012. His many recording accolades include two GRAMMY awards and he has received more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist.

Gardiner's long relationship with the LSO has led to complete symphony cycles and numerous recordings on LSO Live, most recently of Mendelssohn concluding in 2017, and beginning this season of Schumann, which they take on a ten-concert tour of Europe. Other guest conducting highlights this season include Schumann with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Verdi Requiem with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Monteverdi Choir. He returned in 2016 to the Berliner Philharmoniker for semi-staged performances of Stravinsky Oedipus Rex.

Alongside performances at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Concertgebouw, Barbican Hall and Bachfest Leipzig, Gardiner and the Monteverdi ensembles this autumn conclude their celebration of the 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi with staged performances of his three surviving operas at the Berlin Festival, Paris Philharmonie, Harris Theater Chicago and Lincoln Center. Gardiner has conducted opera at the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Opéra national de Paris and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he has appeared regularly since his debut in 1973. From 1983 to 1988 he was artistic director of Opéra de Lyon, where he founded its new orchestra.

Gardiner’s book, Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, was published in October 2013 by Allen Lane, leading to the Prix des Muses award (Singer-Polignac). In 2014 Gardiner became the first ever President of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. Among numerous awards in recognition of his work, Sir John Eliot Gardiner holds honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, the universities of Lyon, Cremona, St Andrews and King’s College, Cambridge where he himself studied and is now an Honorary Fellow; he is also an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, London and the British Academy, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, who awarded him their prestigious Bach Prize in 2008; he became the inaugural Christoph Wolff Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Harvard University in 2014/15 and was awarded the Concertgebouw Prize in January 2016. Gardiner was made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2011 and was given the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2005. In the UK, he was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1990 and awarded a knighthood for his services to music in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The English Baroque Soloists
a chamber orchestra founded in 1978 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, ranks among the most renowned ensembles of the historically informed performance practice movement. The musicians have given concerts throughout Europe, America, Asia, and Australia; they have played at La Scala in Milan, the amphitheater in Pompeii, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Châtelet in Paris, New York’s Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. In the 1990s Sir John Eliot Gardiner recorded the seven “great" Mozart operas with the ensemble, as well as the complete piano concertos and the composer’s mature symphonies; these recordings have garnered numerous awards. The Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, a project that Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Baroque Soloists undertook to mark the 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach in 2000, was also received with considerable acclaim. This entailed a pilgrimage with performances of all 198 Bach cantatas in more than 60 European churches. In recent years the music of the Leipzig master has remained at the center of the orchestra’s work. The ensemble has undertaken concert tours of the B minor Mass (2015) and the St. Matthew Passion (2016), which have been released as live CD recordings. For Christmas in 2016 they gave performances of the Magnificat, the Lutheran Mass in F major, and the cantata Süsser Trost in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Versailles, and London. The English Baroque Soloists are also active as an opera orchestra. In 2015 they performed Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at the Royal Opera House in London, and throughout 2017 they are devoting themselves to the three Monteverdi opera. The English Baroque Soloists are under the patronage of HRH the Prince of Wales.

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