Brandenburg 3 plus contemporary stuff

**jayne lee wilson** · 19-09-21, 14:09

Originally posted by ardcarp View Post

What a RIDICULOUS speed to play Bach. I nearly turned off the whole programme. I'm glad I didn't because the slot devoted to contemporary composers started of with a couple of Schlomowitz's piano pieces. Wonderful. Good to find something cleverly constructed and not minimalist.

No comment on what followed.

Which programme was this please?

There is an absolutely wonderful new set of the Brandenburgs just out, from Faust and the AAMB.... I've been revelling in it alongside Levit's latest the last few days...

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin - Qobuz

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/js-bach-brandenburg-concertos-akademie-fur-alte-musik-berlin-isabelle-faust-antoine-tamestit/thavmj57mzj6a

Listen to unlimited or download J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos by Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in Hi-Res quality on Qobuz. Subscription from £10.83/month.

The omission of doublebass, and the intimately bar-to-bar dialoguing between Faust, Tamestit and the vastly-experienced virtuoso band (with the needle-sharp articulation one now takes for granted) give this set an unusually vital lift bounce and freshness...

Following their Violin Concerto (etc) set of a few years ago, rare and exceptional achievement.....

**Quarky** · 19-09-21, 14:21

.....Record Review....

**cloughie** · 19-09-21, 14:36

Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post

Which programme was this please?

There is an absolutely wonderful new set of the Brandenburgs just out, from Faust and the AAMB.... I've been revelling in it alongside Levit's latest the last few days...

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin - Qobuz

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/js-bach-brandenburg-concertos-akademie-fur-alte-musik-berlin-isabelle-faust-antoine-tamestit/thavmj57mzj6a

Listen to unlimited or download J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos by Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in Hi-Res quality on Qobuz. Subscription from £10.83/month.

The omission of doublebass, and the intimately bar-to-bar dialoguing between Faust, Tamestit and the vastly-experienced virtuoso band (with the needle-sharp articulation one now takes for granted) give this set an unusually vital lift bounce and freshness...

Following their Concerto set of a few years ago, rare and exceptional achievement.....

Kate Molleson started Record Review with it yesterday - sounded good to me - quicker than Klemperer

**jayne lee wilson** · 19-09-21, 15:03

Originally posted by cloughie View Post

Kate Molleson started Record Review with it yesterday - sounded good to me - quicker than Klemperer

Reinhard Goebel set the World Land Speed Record for the finale of No.3 in......1987.....

Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concertos, Musica Antiqua Köln - Qobuz

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/bach-js-brandenburg-concertos-musica-antiqua-de-cologne-reinhard-goebel/0002894231162

Listen to unlimited or download Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concertos by Musica Antiqua Köln in Hi-Res quality on Qobuz. Subscription from £10.83/month.

....and wasn't much less quick in his 2018 modern-instrument revisit (more than made up for this in other movements though!). So Isabelle Faust and the AAMB may be merely Bronze Medallists....

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 19-09-21, 15:48

Originally posted by ardcarp View Post

What a RIDICULOUS speed to play Bach.

The tempo of the first movement seemed reasonable, but the hectic finale reminded me of the time when I was in the school music practice rooms, showing off by playing the piano as fast as possible, knowing there were people listening.

**jayne lee wilson** · 19-09-21, 15:57

I take a great breath of exhilaration from a Brandenburg 3 at such pace, the influx of energy surging from the music into me...
I truly don't feel it betrays the text or the inspiration at all, and if great virtuosos take pleasure in their own high skills..... I am only too glad to be the willing witness to the display.......

These are, after all Concertos... Concertos for Orchestra, really.... which nomenclature tends to suggest a certain level of exhibitionistic bravura.
So why not throw in a few Circus Tricks and try to break records....

**ardcarp** · 19-09-21, 17:01

Oh well...we'll agree to differ. I just hate the complete lack of phrasing and the relentless (but agreed, highly skilled) articulation.

Comments on Schlomo, anyone?

**Braunschlag** · 19-09-21, 17:36

Originally posted by ardcarp View Post

Oh well...we'll agree to differ. I just hate the complete lack of phrasing and the relentless (but agreed, highly skilled) articulation.

Comments on Schlomo, anyone?

Me too but I’m non HIPP anyway so who am I to judge…..
Schlomo - nice pun, unintended of course. Personally - I thought it was sub standard composing, reminded me of mundane A Level students noodling and doodling on a piano trying to find something that might fit a composition brief. Sorry, it did nothing at all for me.

**HighlandDougie** · 19-09-21, 17:58

Originally posted by ardcarp View Post

Oh well...we'll agree to differ. I just hate the complete lack of phrasing and the relentless (but agreed, highly skilled) articulation.

Comments on Schlomo, anyone?

I was driving - on the hellish stretch of 4 lane madness between Nice and Antibes - so possibly didn't give it the attention it deserved but have marked it up to download from Bandcamp when time permits. But musically (and intellectually) intriguing. I can't say that I found the combination of my fellow country-persons very edifying in terms of encouraging the possibly sceptical to listen to Matthew Schlomowitz (and the others) but perhaps it was the Audi/BMW/Merc/Renault Clio constantly up my exhaust pipe which was souring my view of there being too much ever-so slightly gushy talk and not enough music.

**Bryn** · 19-09-21, 18:26

Rather taken with the Schlomo. Do I download it now or wait 12 days for the next Bandcamp Friday so that Matthew gets a slightly larger slice of the cake. I wonder whether it might appear on an All That Dust CD as part of a second Schlomo selection.

**Braunschlag** · 19-09-21, 20:02

Back to Schlomo. Maybe my judgement was too hasty, I listened again (as one should).
It was nostalgic - reminded me of walking along a practise room corridor at Huddersfield in the late 1970s, as if all the doors were open simultaneously, a disorganised cacophony of disconnected chords, fragments, re-starts of pieces, mistakes and frustrated students. If that counts as a serious piece of music then do try it. For me it was amateur, unpianistic and an unmusical mess.

**richardfinegold** · 19-09-21, 20:49

Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post

Which programme was this please?

There is an absolutely wonderful new set of the Brandenburgs just out, from Faust and the AAMB.... I've been revelling in it alongside Levit's latest the last few days...

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin - Qobuz

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/js-bach-brandenburg-concertos-akademie-fur-alte-musik-berlin-isabelle-faust-antoine-tamestit/thavmj57mzj6a

Listen to unlimited or download J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos by Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in Hi-Res quality on Qobuz. Subscription from £10.83/month.

The omission of doublebass, and the intimately bar-to-bar dialoguing between Faust, Tamestit and the vastly-experienced virtuoso band (with the needle-sharp articulation one now takes for granted) give this set an unusually vital lift bounce and freshness...

Following their Violin Concerto (etc) set of a few years ago, rare and exceptional achievement.....

I found that Brandenburg very enjoyable on Qobuz

**Quarky** · 19-09-21, 20:51

Schlomo? Gillian Moore described it as a "sort of wonky I got Rhythm", IIRC, and that's the way I heard it, rather Jazzy and fun. Didn't find it particularly difficult to appreciate, but, no doubt, many subtleties were lost on me. Far worse can be heard on Radio 3!

**jayne lee wilson** · 19-09-21, 21:25

Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post

I found that Brandenburg very enjoyable on Qobuz

Only known the 192khz stream a few days but I'm tempted to call it a landmark set... so playful, so light and light-filled, so full of the purest musical joy! No.6 is playing again now, and, as Charlotte Gardner says in her justifiably-longer-than-usual Qobuz note, how fresh, alive and flowing it sounds without the doublebass....
Just listen to how the two violas (Antoine Tamestit, Sabine Fehlandt) come chattering through in the finale...

Truly exceptional recorded sound, effortlessly transparent, natural and replete with contrapuntal detail.....wonderful!

(Some weekend, listening to this and the new Igor Levit triple-album, majoring on the Stevenson Passacaglia on DSCH...)