J.S. Bach - Cafe Zimmermann / Pablo Valetti - Concerts avec plusieurs instruments V (2011)

Bach's suites and concertos have long been part of concert repertoires. It is however interesting to mentally replace their first executions in the context of the time, so different from what we see on present day stages. Apart from at the courts, whatever their size, there were no permanent orchestras in Bachs time and age. Cafe Zimmermann has brilliantly recreated the spirit of these orchestras, allowing each musician (chosen among the best on the European baroque scene) to express himself. Penultimate opus in this outstanding series, this is the first time we hear Cafe Zimmermann in such a large formation. This in no way harms the characteristic energy of the ensemble and we discover a Bach more alive than ever.

Posted by Jean-Christophe Pucek
Begun in 2001, the company's ensemble Cafe Zimmermann to document, in addition to the six Brandenburg concertos and the four openings, a large part of the production of Johann Sebastian Bach concerto, will reach its completion this year. His fifth volume, edited, like its predecessors, Alpha, comes this month.

The works proposed in this recording juxtaposes two distinct periods of activity of Bach. The very bright Overture in D major (BWV 1068), each of which has in the ear famous Air, and the Brandenburg Concerto in B flat major (BWV 1063), efficient and focused, are likely to have been composed, although it has been forward, no document comes without support this hypothesis, that the Sixth Brandenburg could date from the period immediately preceding Weimar, where the composer served as Kapellmeister at the court of Coethen (1717-1723), whose Calvinism Prince reduced to a minimum the space devoted to sacred music, resulting in a first flowering of Bach instrumental pieces (about fifty, at least). Destination are very different concertos respectively for a (BWV 1056 in F minor) and three harpsichords (BWV 1063 in D minor), probably composite adaptations of earlier works for violin or oboe, reuses materials such as common among many composers of the Baroque period, whether by Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. They were probably designed for the needs of the Collegium Musicum of Leipzig, founded, we recall, in 1702 by Telemann, Bach directed from 1729 to 1741, with an interruption from 1737 to 1739, and whose weekly concerts required a significant amount music. The requirements of these pages, especially the Concerto for three harpsichords, suggest experienced performers, perhaps, as suggested by Gilles Cantagrel in the instructions of the disc, the elder son of Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, or his best students who could have found these pages with an opportunity to honing their talents in public.

The previous volumes of the vast anthology of orchestral music of Bach Cafe Zimmermann, warmly welcomed by critics, is reported, among other qualities, by the care given to the dialogues between the players and the newcomer is no exception. It is a network of trade very thinly and very vigorously conducted behind four scores proposed here, in this spirit of conversation that is truly one of Concerts with several instruments, to use the name given by Bach himself in this we know today as that of Brandenburg Concertos. Worn by the musicians of the first order, this reading perfectly combines expressiveness and dramatic tension, and avoiding both excesses observed explosive dear Reinhard Goebel biases that sometimes a little mannered Jordi Savall, to name only two major versions Openings and Brandenburg. There is here an evident pleasure of being around the works, a friendliness that brings parts sometimes belaboured an undeniable freshness. An excellent example is provided by the Air from the Overture in D major, played up to what it takes not to become mired in a pathos unwelcome, but with enough sensitivity to keep moving. Overall, colors are bright and contrasting, the firm line without being too pressed, the speech combines dynamism and even petulance when the pump music requires, and density without prosaic. Both concertos are rendered with an undeniable flair and one finds great pleasure the game fluid and elegant Celine Frisch, seconded by Dirk Boerner happiness with Anna and Fontana in BWV 1063. The delivery of the three soloists is full of dash and enthusiasm, not flashy or superficial. A delight. The only reservation that I shall make for the Brandenburg Concerto in B flat major, which would have won, in my opinion, to be approached with a little more sensuality and I find that compared to other realizations of this disc as previous versions that I know of this work, a little dull. It is, of course, only a small flat in a recording high-quality event which spontaneity of approach does not know, I think that few competitors.

I suggest you listen to this fifth volume of concerts with several instruments which once again honor the music of Bach and musicians of Cafe Zimmermann. The final component of their business, whose publication is announced for the second half of 2011, will take the necessary perspective to assess the work done by all, but there is little doubt that part of already already among the best contributions in recent years in the field of orchestral music of Bach.