Sunday Classics preview: It's New Year's Eve, and have we got a "Brandenburg" Concerto for you!

For New Year's Eve, the fizziest of the Brandenburgs: Sir James Galway is joined by Andrea Griminelli and an unidentified violin soloist in the effervescent first movement of Concerto No. 4, with the Union Chamber Orchestra at the Teatro Giacosa in Aosta, April 2009.

by Ken

We began our once-through of Bach's timeless Brandenburg Concertos last week with Nos. 1-3, meaning that this week's business is Nos. 4-6. And as suggested above, I think the ebullient Fourth Brandenburg is an excellent match for New Year's Eve. The paired flutes lend it an especially heady note.

While we're thinking "flutes," I thought it might be fun to hear our old friend flutist-conductor Kurt Redel, whom you'll recall we heard playing as well as conducting Telemann. This performance is from his Erato stereo remake of the Brandenburgs with his Munich Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and featuring many of the same instrumentalists who'd been with him for the 1955 mono set.

BACH: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, BWV 1049

i. Allegro
ii. Andante; iii. Presto

Kurt Redel and Paul Meisen, flutes; Reinhold Barchet, violin; Munich Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Kurt Redel, cond. Erato/Musical Heritage Society, recorded My 1-6, 1962


We even have New Year's fireworks! Well, after a fashion -- accompanying the first movement of Brandenburg No. 4 in a synthesized version "using both analog and digital synthesizers" according to the poster.


IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW --

We have a first listen to the Fifth Brandenburg. Sunday, of course, is our Brandenburg Nos. 4-6 day (with a bit of extra business on tap).

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