SCO Bach's Brandenburgh Concertos Queen's Hall Edinburgh 9th January 2025 Review
Scottish Chamber Orchestra Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh this afternoon was simply a pleasant way to spend a few hours on a cold January day.
This was the first SCO live Edinburgh concert of 2025, and this format of adding some afternoon matinee performances for people who may not want to come out to, or for whatever reason cannot make, an evening concert is obviously working as this was a sold out concert.
The music of J S Bach is always going to bring the audiences into a concert, particularly the ever popular Brandenburg Concertos. It is odd today then to think that these concertos, written somewhere around 1721, were lost to the world for over 100 years until they were re-discovered by Siegfried Dehn, who found them whilst cataloguing Princess Amalia's library in 1849. He had this music published for the first time in the following year. It is also hard to believe that this iconic music was probably sent away by Bach as a sort of musical C.V. in the hopes of getting a job, one which he never got any response to.
Bach’s music is now some 300 years old, but in the right hands it sounds so fresh and contemporary today. Perhaps the use of his music for many films, television adverts and by contemporary musicians has a lot to do with this. Bach and his music are simply everywhere, they are part of 20th/21st century life.
When like today, however, someone very special touches Bach’s work, that combination can really bring this music and the way that it touches so many people emotionally into life once more. Today that special talent was British violinist Rachel Podger, one of today’s leading interpreters of Baroque music. There was a genuine warmth from Rachel, not only her humour and love for this music, but also for her piccolo violin (tuned we were told a third above a standard sized violin).
There were only actually two Brandenburg Concertos, 1, and 4 (out of six) performed this afternoon with the other Bach works being BACH Sinfonia to Cantata No 174 and BACH Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major BWV 1068 . The only non-Bach work came from his musical contemporary, the prolific composer Georg Philipp Telemann and his Sonata in E minor TWV 50:4.
Rachel Podger obviously has a very special place in her heart for all of the music performed today, and watching the smile on her face and her body language as this music moved her whilst playing violin and also directing the SCO was a pleasure to watch. This is what music should do at its most basic level – create a response in people. This joy at playing the music of Bach and Telemann was obviously shared by the SCO musicians too.
The Brandenburg Concertos were written to highlight different combinations of instruments, which allowed for two special performances on flute by André Cebrián and Marta Gómez. The Air from Bach Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major is one of the most wonderful pieces of music ever written and if you are old enough you will remember it being used in a certain cigar advert too.
Watching the way that many of the SCO musicians were reacting to the music of Bach this afternoon, I could not help but wonder what he would have done with Jazz had he been alive in the 20th century, as so much of that freedom of musical expression is already there in his music all those centuries ago.
The music of Georg Philipp Telemann, despite his vast output of some 3,000 works, may today not be as well known to many people as that of J S Bach, but it is nonetheless wonderful and often, as in today's work, playing with musical ideas that were far ahead of their time. Telemann was a visionary composer and this Sonata in E minor TWV 50:4 simply does not sound around 300 years old.
A special mention needs to go to Toby Carr for his performance on the lute and also to Jan Waterfield on harpsichord – two of my favourite instruments.
Programme
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No 1
TELEMANN Sonata in E minor TWV 50:4
BACH Sinfonia to Cantata No 174
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No 4
BACH Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major BWV 1068
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This was the first SCO live Edinburgh concert of 2025, and this format of adding some afternoon matinee performances for people who may not want to come out to, or for whatever reason cannot make, an evening concert is obviously working as this was a sold out concert.
The music of J S Bach is always going to bring the audiences into a concert, particularly the ever popular Brandenburg Concertos. It is odd today then to think that these concertos, written somewhere around 1721, were lost to the world for over 100 years until they were re-discovered by Siegfried Dehn, who found them whilst cataloguing Princess Amalia's library in 1849. He had this music published for the first time in the following year. It is also hard to believe that this iconic music was probably sent away by Bach as a sort of musical C.V. in the hopes of getting a job, one which he never got any response to.
Bach’s music is now some 300 years old, but in the right hands it sounds so fresh and contemporary today. Perhaps the use of his music for many films, television adverts and by contemporary musicians has a lot to do with this. Bach and his music are simply everywhere, they are part of 20th/21st century life.
When like today, however, someone very special touches Bach’s work, that combination can really bring this music and the way that it touches so many people emotionally into life once more. Today that special talent was British violinist Rachel Podger, one of today’s leading interpreters of Baroque music. There was a genuine warmth from Rachel, not only her humour and love for this music, but also for her piccolo violin (tuned we were told a third above a standard sized violin).
There were only actually two Brandenburg Concertos, 1, and 4 (out of six) performed this afternoon with the other Bach works being BACH Sinfonia to Cantata No 174 and BACH Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major BWV 1068 . The only non-Bach work came from his musical contemporary, the prolific composer Georg Philipp Telemann and his Sonata in E minor TWV 50:4.
Rachel Podger obviously has a very special place in her heart for all of the music performed today, and watching the smile on her face and her body language as this music moved her whilst playing violin and also directing the SCO was a pleasure to watch. This is what music should do at its most basic level – create a response in people. This joy at playing the music of Bach and Telemann was obviously shared by the SCO musicians too.
The Brandenburg Concertos were written to highlight different combinations of instruments, which allowed for two special performances on flute by André Cebrián and Marta Gómez. The Air from Bach Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major is one of the most wonderful pieces of music ever written and if you are old enough you will remember it being used in a certain cigar advert too.
Watching the way that many of the SCO musicians were reacting to the music of Bach this afternoon, I could not help but wonder what he would have done with Jazz had he been alive in the 20th century, as so much of that freedom of musical expression is already there in his music all those centuries ago.
The music of Georg Philipp Telemann, despite his vast output of some 3,000 works, may today not be as well known to many people as that of J S Bach, but it is nonetheless wonderful and often, as in today's work, playing with musical ideas that were far ahead of their time. Telemann was a visionary composer and this Sonata in E minor TWV 50:4 simply does not sound around 300 years old.
A special mention needs to go to Toby Carr for his performance on the lute and also to Jan Waterfield on harpsichord – two of my favourite instruments.
Programme
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No 1
TELEMANN Sonata in E minor TWV 50:4
BACH Sinfonia to Cantata No 174
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No 4
BACH Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major BWV 1068
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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