JS Bach complete Brandenburg Concertos
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| Richard Egarr |
Richard Egarr presides over evenings of breathtaking variety and virtuosity as the AAM performs all six of JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos before recording them for Harmonia Mundi. No two concertos are the same either in style or instrumentation; from the dazzling trumpet solo in the second to the astonishing harpsichord cadenza in the fifth, there is more contrast packed into one evening than you would imagine.
Tickets have sold out for both performances. Returns may be available on the door.
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| Pavlo Beznosiuk |
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| Christopher Hogwood |
The AAM’s recent performances of Handel’s Flavio, the second of three opera projects with Christopher Hogwood leading up to the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death next year, received high praise in the press. In the Birmingham Post, Christopher Morley wrote “Christopher Hogwood conducted an AAM of wonderfully sprung agility. Oboes cooed like turtle-doves, the flute cast a pastel spell, and the theorbo rasped tellingly in the well-placed recitatives”.
Responding to a packed performance at the Barbican, Rupert Christiansen wrote “Vivaciously played by the Academy of Ancient Music, this performance had plenty of panache”. In The Times Richard Morrison wrote “with the evergreen Christopher Hogwood conducting an on-form Academy of Ancient Music, this performance couldn’t be faulted for energy or stylishness”.
Rising star Karina Gauvin, who joined the all-star lineup of soloists at very short notice in place of an indisposed Sandrine Piau, was singled out for especial praise: Christiansen felt that her “deliquescent singing of two gorgeously melancholy arias in the second act was the evening’s musical highlight”. Look out for her in the future!
The final opera in the triptych, Handel’s Arianna, will be performed on tour around Europe in May 2009.