Academy of Ancient Music/Richard Eggar - Bach – Brandenburg Concertos I – VI

Posted by Hannah McCloy on Friday 29 October 2010

All of Bach’s Brandeburg concertos in one concert might seem a bit of a daunting prospect, especially if you had been attending other of the day’s events in Glasgow Concert Hall’s ‘Portrait of the Composer: Bach in Cöthen’.  Indeed it might be a chore under lesser forces, but the inimitable Academy of Ancient Music, with their director Richard Eggar on harpsichord, ensured that not only was the concert musically brilliant, but that it was put in some sort of context too.

Apart from some fluffed notes from the horn player in the first concerto, the musicians played brilliantly, and in such a vibrant way. You could see when they were having fun, and the performance was all the better for it – some of the players in the Scottish orchestras would do well to note that classical music concerts aren’t required to be such dour affairs.

Eggar’s introductions before each of the concerti not only got rid of the awkward moments as the stage was being rearranged, but provided some illuminating details and theories on the music, which transformed it from being pretty-Bach-music, into a living, breathing set of pieces, full of nuance, fun, and originality. It’s just a shame that Christian Ludwig, the margrave of Brandenburg, for whom they were written, and in whose library they languished until being sold after his death, didn’t have the resources to perform them.

JM

Tags: City Centre, Classical