Brandenburg Concertos 1-6

Giuliano Carmignola (violin), Ottavio Dantone (harpsichord), Michala Petri (recorder) & Reinhold Friedrich (trumpet) & Orchestra Mozart, Claudio Abbado

The maturity and wisdom harvested from a lifetime of making music on the highest levels ennobles Maestro Abbado’s leadership of the superb Orchestra Mozart. The sublime simplicity of their performance of the Brandenburg Concertos illuminates the complexities of Bach’s incomparable demonstration of the unity of Logic and Love.

Harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone, recorder player Michala Petri, trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich, supreme Baroque violinist, Giuliano Carmignola and the others demonstrate the mastery that makes them among Abbado’s favorite soloists

Employing period instruments, Orchestra Mozart liberates all the vitality embedded in Bach’s notes. Wrote Classical Source: “…As if you’re hearing [the music] for the first time”

"The excitement is palpable, reflected in smiling glances between the players, bodies swaying through musical suspensions, a sense of uninhibited joy… The playing is stylish throughout: ornaments are apt, all the more telling for their restraint; trills are paced to match mood, languid in slow movements, sparkling in allegros."
BBC Music Magazine - April 2009

"Here Claudio Abbado is gambolling among the Brandenburg Concertos in this straightforward TV-style concert film, recorded in the classic 19th-century opera house at Reggio Emilia during an Italian tour in spring 2007.
The orchestra is at first glance a curious gathering, mixing 'Baroque' players such as violinist Giuliano Carmignola and harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone with 'modern' names such as trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich and 'un-Baroque' recorder-player Michala Petri. Furthermore, a look round the instruments reveals mostly modern models, some hybrids (for instance Jacques Zoon's wooden, multi-keyed flute) and a sprinkling of Baroque bows. Mind you, most younger players these days are well versed in Baroque style whatever they play on, and the tenor of these performances is firmly consistent with current ideas of what Baroque music ought to sound like."
Gramophone Classical Music Guide - 2010

"The audio-only experience draws out a super-contented gestural world which had only intermittently communicated itself before...The hallmark of this set is the ambition to create lithe, beautiful and elegant statements in which witty, sophisticated dialogues are carried off within a heady textural landscape...The Fifth spins like a happy top...These are life-affirming live performances...which glide effortlessly on to the high table."
Gramophone Magazine - June 2011

"This new recording of the Brandenburg Concertos exhibits all the virtues that one associates with Claudio Abbado: clarity, lucidity, balance, a sense of proportion, and, above all, an indefinable yet audible 'oneness' with the music. Dionysus is present in these performances, but he subsumed within their underlying Apollonian quality."
International Record Review - April 2011

"Does the world need another set of Brandenburgs? Yes, when they are as freshly minted and as adventurously sonorous as this marvellous set...Abbado leads supple, imaginative readings; a great deal of the strong character is provided by his leader, violinist Giuliano Carmignola, and there is a brilliant harpsichord solo from Ottavio Dantone in the fifth concerto."
The Observer - 13th March 2011

"Conducting J. S. Bach isn’t Abbado’s usual activity. But he buckles to it with joy, humanity and an Italianate slant that turns these cornerstone suites into outpourings of instrumental song. The players are the all-star Orchestra Mozart, with Giuliano Carmignola the demon lead fiddler, caught live in 2007."
The Times - 12th March 2011