Voices of Music: Brandenburg Times Two

Once again, it has been a while since my last encounter with a Sunday Mornings at Ten video compiled by Voices of Music. My last article discussed Episode 18 in Season 5. Videos are still being added to Season 5, and yesterday’s installment was Episode 37. The title of that episode was simply Brandenburg.

As most readers will guess, the program drew upon the six “Brandenburg” concertos composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Two of those concertos were selected for Episode 37: BWV 1051 (the sixth) in B-flat major and BWV 1049 (the fourth) in G major. BWV 1051 is distinguished by its bias for lower-register instruments. BWV 1049, on the other hand, has a distinctive upper register with an emphasis on two recorders.

The “all-strings” performance of BWV 1051 by Katy Kyme, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Hanneke van Proosdij, Tanya Tomkins, William Skeen, and Farley Pearce (screenshot from the video of this performance)

Back in my days at the campus radio station of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we used to joke about the coincidence that the sixth Brandenburg concerto should have six solo parts. In Brandenburg those parts were taken by Katy Kyme and Elizabeth Blumenstock on viole da braccio, Elisabeth Reed and William Skeen on viole da gamba, cellist Tanya Tomkins, and Farley Pearce on violone. Continuo was provided by Hanneke van Proosdij on cembalo.

For BWV 1049, Proosdij shifted over to recorder, joined by Andrew Levy. The closing credits listed them as playing “echo flutes;” but those were for the “echo” passages in the second movement. As far as I could see (through the limitations) their instruments for the second movement were the same as those for the first and third. The other instruments were two period violins performed by Kati Kyme and Gabrielle Wunsch, Lisa Grodin on a period viola, William Skeen on a five-string period cello, Farley Pearce again on violone, and harpsichordist Katherine Heater.

I have become so familiar with both of these concertos that I can probably reproduce them in my dreams! Nevertheless, there was a freshness to both of the performances, and the video did much to let the eye guide the ear’s attention. This was particularly evident in the account of BWV 1051. With the exception of the harpsichord, all of the instruments were bowed; but Bach’s approach to composition encouraged the attentive listener to relish the diversity of sonorities. Hopefully, this video will enjoy considerable attention to what amounts to an adventurous engagement in listening to unfamiliar sonorities!