The Pittsburgh Symphony did all 6 Brandenberg concertos today.

Each concerto has a different set of instruments.

The largest ensemble had only 34 players onstage. (the 2nd Brandenburg with the trumpet solo)

The smallest had 10 players.

That extended harpsichord solo of the 5th,

And the sixth one with no violins, only violas, viola-ca-gamba, cellos, base and continuo.

Each concert series there are typically 80 to 120 musicians onstage, not to mention a full chorus for big choral music.

In these pieces, one or two instruments carry everything and fill the hall with music -- full rich robust music -- and astounding music at that.

SO if you get a chance to see any of these in person, please do.

In my collection records and CD's the music of Johann Sebastian Bach has an important place and I have 5 different versions of his Bandenburg Concertos and I have heard many other interpretations in the concert halls, little churches and on radio, but I never heard about a version with so many instruments and it sounds to me a little over the top. The music is composed for small ensembles and in this intimity the fine richeness of the sound structures comes to a better advantage. There is a strange tendency in the performances of Bach's Saint Matthew's Passion. On the one hand the orchestra's and choirs tend to grow bigger and bigger and on the other hand under influence of some musicologists and conductors there is the tendency to minimize the cast. The double choirs are small ensembles and the soloists are not soloists in the 'traditional' way but members of the small choir ensembles too. This seems to suit better with the acoustical setting of the original place where Bach has performed his Passions and Cantatas, the Thomas Kirche in Leipzig. Here too seems less more.

The Brandenburg with ten players only had ten players and that amazingly beautiful one with the Viola, viola da gamba, cellos and bass was that small. The rest of the Brandenburgs had a surfeit of principle players from the Symphony.

And they didn't use period instruments but the orchestral instruments (except for the Viola da Gamba) so liberties were taken.

This was conducted by Jeannette Sorrell of Apollo's Fire from nearby Cleveland.

Way more theatrical than Bach would do but with brilliant first players and a host of second and third players more than able to solo if necessary, they made the ensembles bigger.

And make no mistake, these are group efforts adn the ensembles made it group efforts. THey didn't have to be showboats and that made it all the more baroque.

Dave said:

Dave (imported) wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:38 am The Brandenburg with ten players only had ten players

Well, that's a surprise.

well, only because the Brandenburg concerti have scores you can buy for string orchestra or even piano four hands.

And years ago, Wendy Carlos (or Walter if the record industry didn't change the credits) arranged them for synthesizer.

But yes, I see how that would strike anyone as humorous and it is chuckle-worthy.



I should have said that Jennette Sorrell as conductor maintained baroque tempi and dynamics of period instruments but not the key or the sonority.

Awfully nerdy of me, wasn't it?

Makes me miss Deutche Grammophon vinyl records for that "honest" sound complete with base coverage.

They were heavier then any vinyl record I have witnessed.