Trevor Pinnock and the European Brandenburg Ensemble

Trevor Pinnock and the European Brandenburg Ensemble

Bach: Six Concertos

(Avie)

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Harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock broke new ground when he recorded J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with the English Concert in 1982, said Lindsay Kemp in Gramophone. At that time, performances of the works on authentic period instruments “were relatively rare; today they abound.” So Pinnock isn’t trying to prove anything with this new album. He just wants us to “sit back and enjoy its relaxed, celebratory spirit.” As a 60th birthday present to himself, Pinnock has “handpicked” some of today’s elite performers of Baroque music, here dubbed the European Brandenburg Ensemble. His gift to us is the chance to hear stellar musicians “relishing each other’s company in music of truly inspiring greatness.” It seems to have been a genuine pleasure for everyone involved, said Lawson Taitte in The Dallas Morning News. Listening to the lively versions of these six concertos is a reminder of how period-instrument performance has grown more refined and ambitious over the last 25 years. There’s an “individual give and take among soloists” that comes easily and sounds relaxed, and you can hear the “sheer joy” they take in playing. Pinnock seems to have enjoyed himself the most, said Andrew Clark in the Financial Times. It’s his conducting that makes these recordings a “revelation.” To hear Bach’s notes enlivened with such fervor is “to sense Bach’s daring instead of his order and discipline.”