Marketing a recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos these days is getting to be a slick cougar-in-the-front-seat sort of business. With more than twenty complete versions available, the typical manufacturer doesn’t even claim that his new recording is better than the competition; he merely insists that it is different. The High Priest of Rocker Bach, for instance, has recently recorded a groovy and swinging double time version, and the Musicologists’ Bane offers nothing less than the Brandenburgs before they became the Brandenburgs.
But being different doesn’t necessarily count for much when it comes to recordings of these six superb chamber concertos (variously scored for from seven to 13 players), which were written for and played by Bach’s court orchestra at Köthen before being dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721. No other musical works by any composer are found in such a variety of contrasting performances. Differences in ensemble size, instruments used, and interpretive styles, not to mention quality of playing, may easily make one man’s Yum-Yum another man’s Katisha.
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