Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – J.S. Bach: Horn Concertos (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – J.S. Bach: Horn Concertos (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 53:54 minutes | 560 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © haenssler CLASSIC

Johann Sebastian Bach never composed a concerto or solo piece for the Waldhorn. Here and there, it is true, he wrote some wonderful passages for the valveless horn of his day – in the Brandenburg Concerto no.1, the Mass in B minor and just a few of his cantatas. For my part, I was keen to get closer still to his musical cosmos. Some 20 years ago, I began to play his cello suites on the horn and I handled them very carefully. It was the first hurdle to clear and my first encounter as a hornist with the great master.

“You can approach Bach in many different ways”- horn concertos with Radek Baborak: Imagine the following scene: A music-loving Venetian merchant visits Leipzig on business in the 1730s. Once the deal is done, his business contacts in the city invite him to a concert in Zimmermann’s Coffee House, where Thomaskantor Johann Sebastian regularly performs with his Collegium musicum. The evening’s programme includes a Concerto for four harpsichords and strings with Bach himself, probably his grown-up sons and maybe one of his pupils on the solo instruments. When the work begins, the visitor from Venice is taken by surprise. This is music he knows from his native city, albeit as a Concerto for four violins and strings from the cycle L’estro armonico by his countryman Antonio Vivaldi. Bach has arranged the concerto and much else out of admiration for the Venetian maestro.

The musicians of the Berlin Baroque Soloists, who for the most part are members of the Berlin Philharmonic, are well known to Radek Babor’ak from his time as solo horn player of the orchestra from 2003 to 2010. “That is why the recording with the Berlin Baroque Soloists was not such an unusual project,” says Radek Babor’ak, “but it was a dream of mine to play something by Bach with this ensemble, which plays modern instruments. Some eight years ago, we played together in a program of works by Telemann and Zelenka. That was a thrilling time. What particularly appealed to me about my colleagues was that for all their concentration on the work in hand, they still had a relaxed approach. They were orientated towards historical performance practice, but without the dogmatic rigor that one sometimes finds in specialist ensembles”. To make his dream come true, and drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of Bach, Radek Babor’ak trawled the composer’s works. He comments: “I am not a musicologist, in the first place I am a musician. When I find something I like, I use it for my purposes. If the material is robust – and it always is with Bach – it doesn’t matter what you play it on: the harpsichord, the organ, with strings, with choir, it will always sound good”.

Tracklist:
01. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe Concerto in F Major, BWV 1053R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): I. Allegro (08:13)
02. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe Concerto in F Major, BWV 1053R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): II. Siciliano (05:25)
03. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe Concerto in F Major, BWV 1053R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): III. Allegro (06:50)
04. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1059R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): I. Allegro (06:05)
05. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1059R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): II. Adagio (03:57)
06. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1059R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): III. Presto (04:01)
07. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe d’amore Concerto in A Major, BWV 1055R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): I. Allegro (04:22)
08. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe d’amore Concerto in A Major, BWV 1055R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): II. Larghetto (10:25)
09. Radek Baborák & Berliner Barock Solisten – Bach: Oboe d’amore Concerto in A Major, BWV 1055R (Arr. for Horn & Orchestra): III. Allegro ma non tanto (04:33)

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