| Comments: | Hieu Tran said:
Arte Nova has never offered good notes with their CDs. The horribly scant notes are often riddled with misspellings, typos of all kinds, including misspellings of the composers' names to mistakes in typing out the dates. The music, however, is usually of much better quality. In this double CD set (a compilation of separate CDs), Ross Pople and his London Festival Orchestra complement their recording of the Brandenburg Concertos with the Orchestral Suites. Not known as a label that best tries to reach the limits in recording time with music, Arte Nova often leaves about twenty minutes, or so, of recording space. However, they saw even too much space here and include with the four Orchestral Suites the G minor suite and a concerto for oboe and violin. Forget the great performance of the Orchestral Suites in this set. Forget the spurious addition of the G minor suite. Even without the inclusion of the dynamically balanced, well-toned, and finely rendered set of Overtures, this set, or at least the first CD is worth the inexpensive price because of the perfectly played Concerto for Oboe and Violin. Never has a recording offered such a stunning performance--it is beauty in its purest. From the ritornello that opens the first movement, filled with the oboe and violin echoing each other, to the calm, pizzicato harmonic framework to the elegant final movement, every note, every dying fall, every sunny breath from the oboe, every imitation from the sweet violin is sparked perfectly in rhythmic and dynamic soundness. This recording makes believable, if not confirms, the reconstruction from the double harpsichord concerto, BWV 1060 into this concerto for oboe and violin. And if Bach had not written this concerto for oboe and violin, this performance, then, credits Bach with even more divinity. |
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