Brecon Baroque

Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque – Vivaldi: L’Estro Armonico (2015)
DSF 5.0 Surround DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:36:58 minutes | 9,89 GB
or DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 01:36:58 minutes | 3,95GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo 24bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:36:58 minutes | 4,13 GB
Genre: Classical | Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | © Channel Classics Records B.V.

Vivaldi has, above all, always struck me as wonderfully entertaining. His musical shapes and figurations seem to exist in order to please and surprise. Always supremely idiomatic (although sometimes idiosyncratically specific), there’s also that sense of directing a sensation with a particular person in mind. In the 12 Concertos which comprise ‘L’Estro Armonico’, these qualities abound, not least because Vivaldi appears to have taken extraordinary trouble to exhibit his craft to the world, almost as a way of ‘setting out a stall’ for how a new 18thcentury concerto could now be written in the right hands. Underpinning Vivaldi’s flair, originality and meticulous attention to detail is an engine room of momentum: raw energy is regularly the order of the day with muscular layers of semiquavers and rapid acrobatics passed between the various configurations of soloists. These pieces are truly exhilarating to play and perform and their fresh impact never fails to hit some target or other, judging by the reaction of a live audience. Not often do you witness four violins trying to outdo each other! During Brecon Baroque’s concerts preceding the recording, the rapierlike turns in musical conversations between the four parts always seemed to lead to added expectation and excitement – all the more effective because of the contrasted moments of deep melancholy which Vivaldi some how manages to express irrespective of mode; like Schubert, a major key can be just as poignant and affecting as a minor in a conceit of sadness or loss. For example, in the slow movements of Concertos nos. 9 and 12 in D and E major respectively, there is an exquisite tenderness in his writing, something fragile, innocent and temporary; I catch myself wondering for whom these moments were created… I would like to thank all my wonderful colleagues for these many intense moments of energy, tenderness and joy while performing and recording these fantastic concertos – works which intrigued Bach and from which he mined so many of the very finest Vivaldian attributes. –Rachel Podger

(more…)

Rachel Podger & Brecon Baroque – J. S. Bach: Violin Concertos (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz  | Time – 51:42 minutes | 2,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: ISO SACD | © Channel Classics Records

It sometimes seems that many Baroque violinists never would have had careers as “normal” violinists–but this is certainly not the case with Rachel Podger. Although some of her work in music later than the Baroque period is less than convincing in its approach, there’s no question that she’s a top-notch musician, and she’s never made a finer (or smarter) recording than this. It’s a pleasure from first note to last.
First of all, it’s great seeing the two canonic Bach violin concertos not coupled with the usual “double” violin concerto (with the soloist playing both parts, of course). Instead, Podger offers transcriptions of two keyboard concertos, neither of which is usually thought to have been originally written for the violin. This makes less of a difference than you might think. The low tessitura of BWV 1055 may not offer Podger much of a technical challenge, but the sonorities recall the two strings-only Brandenburgs, and there are moments, such as her entry at the start of the finale, that are simply magical.
Both this work and BWV 1056 were likely composed for oboe (or oboe d’amore), but again, the delicious pizzicato Largo of the G minor concerto sounds wonderfully fresh and charming with a violin as soloist, and I don’t miss the honking and clicking of the usual Baroque oboe one bit. Which brings us to the next issue: Podger plays all of this music immaculately, with characterful ornamentation and (thank God) enough vibrato to achieve a distinctive cantabile tone, especially in the slow movements. Her moderate tempos in the allegros (the term means “lively”–not “like a bat out of hell”, as some authenticists apparently think) allow her to phrase the melodies with confidence, interact with and play off of the orchestra, and prevent Bach’s chugging rhythms from turning mechanical.
Brecon Baroque numbers just six players aside from Podger, which means essentially one player to a part. Yet the result never sounds thin or dry, thanks in large part to Channel Classics’ stunningly natural, warm SACD engineering (marvelous in regular stereo or multichannel formats). Also, and this really is a big deal, continuo player Christopher Bucknall uses a gentle, pleasant-toned instrument that never swamps the strings. The result is a true “chamber concerto” experience, an exquisite dialog that the players clearly relish while preserving the essential contrast between solo and tutti on which the concerto form depends. Highest recommendation.

(more…)

Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque – J.S. Bach – The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:10:07 minutes | 2,81 GB | Genre: Classical
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – – 01:10:07 minutes | 1,44 GB
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Channel Classics Records

Fugue and the art of counterpoint are often almost bywords for Bach the composer. Certainly, from the viewpoint of many later generations, he was the first composer to make fugue the basis for a whole and complete piece of music, one that often seemed to serve no purpose beyond the ‘purely musical’. In a sense, this must surely be right: while there are countless fugal compositions before Bach, very few share the same relentless, yet expressive, cohesion, and most that were written outside the keyboard sphere were associated with a text and liturgical function. There is something about Bach’s fugal composition that immediately places it at the service of composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schoenberg. For them, earlier counterpoint in the Renaissance tradition provided more a model for refined technique than for an overriding nexus of musically cohering ideas.

(more…)

Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque – J.S. Bach – The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:10:07 minutes | 5,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Channel Classics Records

Fugue and the art of counterpoint are often almost bywords for Bach the composer. Certainly, from the viewpoint of many later generations, he was the first composer to make fugue the basis for a whole and complete piece of music, one that often seemed to serve no purpose beyond the ‘purely musical’. In a sense, this must surely be right: while there are countless fugal compositions before Bach, very few share the same relentless, yet expressive, cohesion, and most that were written outside the keyboard sphere were associated with a text and liturgical function. There is something about Bach’s fugal composition that immediately places it at the service of composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schoenberg. For them, earlier counterpoint in the Renaissance tradition provided more a model for refined technique than for an overriding nexus of musically cohering ideas.

(more…)

Rachel Podger & Brecon Baroque – J. S. Bach: Double & Triple Concertos (2013)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz  | Time – 01:05:23 minutes | 2,58 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: ISO SACD | © Channel Classics Records

For two soloists chose themselves – so-called ‘Bach Double’ (a.k.a. the famous Concerto for TwoViolins in D minor) and the work for violin and oboe. Of course, the universal appeal of the former is unsurpassed with its timelessly beautiful middle movement of exquisite conversations between the two violins, framed by vigorous outer movements. In fact, this piece is a concerto for6 parts, as he himself stated on the manuscript title page ‘Concerto a Sei’ – all parts playing a crucial part in the colour and richness of the ensemble.
Performing these pieces with just single players on each part rather than an orchestra makes the roles of each particularly pronounced and clear, all of us ‘concerto-ing’, not just the conventional ‘soloists’.The other double concerto on this recording has a darker, broader and more dramatic landscape. The contemplative slow movement is the best answer to the question ‘what can I listen to after such a long day’s work?’, its gentle swing and beautiful mellifluous lines soothing any aches and pains. The last movement feels like a gutsy earth-bound ‘clog dance’ full of reels and japes.
The Triple Concerto in A minor is in a world of its own: it’s really a harpsichord concerto to which the colours of the flute and violin are sprinkled – the same scoring as in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no 5. Written about fifteen years after the Brandenburg, Bach adapted the outer movements of the Triple from his Prelude and Fugue, bwv 894, and the slow movement comes from the Organ Trio Sonata, bwv 527. It’s a brilliantly written piece for the harpsichord showing off many novel keyboard tricks with rapid figurations and interesting and engaging ripeno parts.
As we know, recycling his own works and adapting them for different purposes and contexts was a common practice for Bach, and it is widely known that his harpsichord concertos all found their musical voice, initially, in versions for other instruments, especially the violin. Such is the case with both these double concertos; for the violin and oboe concerto the only extant source is the two-harpsichord score from the composer’s Collegium Musicum concert series in the 1730s.The scoring of violin and oboe is speculative, albeit rather more than a guess.The Concerto for Three Harpsichords in C major is also believed to have been conceived originally as a Triple Violin Concerto in D major. It’s a treat to play: the richly interweaving lines of the solo instruments providing intensity and exhilaration, whether in conversation or competition. The solo passages take your breath away within the realms of virtuosic writing.Knowing Bach’s writing for violin we can understand his fondness for the instrument,not least the care in exceptional craftsmanship of idiomatic writing for it. It goes well beyond any other baroque composer.

(more…)