Saturday, March 21, 2009

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

From my previous post, the first choice is Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

The story behind how these amazing pieces of music were just moldering on a shelf and then sold away ($22!) is just amazing.  

Basically, I distilled what I know down to two recordings.  One is on modern instruments while the other is historical.  Both are awesome.

1)Sir Neville Marriner and Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields have a two disc set with many outstanding soloists.  Both discs are a steal at Amazon.  Disc 1 (1-4) and Disc 2 (5,6 and  Orch Suite 1 as a bonus) at about $7 a piece are a steal.

2) Trevor Pinnock's recordings on period instruments set the bar for HIP.  While not as inexpensive as Marriner and ASMF's, it does include four Orchestral Suites and spans three discs.

Full disclosure: I don't own either of these.  My wife has some real crap version (which I phased out years ago) but I have always loved my Baumgartner versions.  I have read a lot about the different versions and listened to a large amount of samples.  Honestly, Marriner and Pinnock are awesome and I have a ton of other works by them, so it's not hard to go out on a limb and suggest them.

PS: Another version that really caught my ear was this one by the Italiano Concerto and Rinaldo Alessandrini.  Wow!  The No. 5's Harpsichord riff on here is enticing.

2 comments:

Matthew Ozvat said...

I need to locate these on Itunes and add them to my collection. I wonder if we should start an online site that instead of a book club we develop a music club.

Forum Title 1) This week we will be listening to X. Here is the history and composer information of X, and here are the interesting things to listen to when playing X. Please listen to X and post your comments by the date of Y.

This would allow a newbie to grow an understanding of classical music.

Speaking of visionary money making schemes, I do have something in the fire. If your interested in an entrepreneur money making idea (involves coding) let me know.

Richard Morgan said...

Uh oh!