Bach: Brandenburg Concertos/Brandenburgische Konzerte/Los Concertos Brandebourgeois
Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln recorded the Brandenburgs in 1986-87 in a style that one can refer to only as punk Baroque. Their readings are characterized by slashing accents, missing articulations, a de-emphasis of melody, and an overemphasis of metrical pulse, with an attendant exaggeration of Bach's otherwise wonderfully enlivening syncopations. Occasionally, the most peculiarly anachronistic cadential ritards get thrown in as well. The result has all the charm of an antipersonnel mine. For an idea of what their "extreme" Bach sounds like, listen to the first movement of Concerto No. 6, which Goebel and his gang take so disastrously fast, it's laughable (they dispatch it in 4:25, compared with Boston Baroque's by no means poky 6:10). Makes you want to reach for your brass knuckles.--Ted Libbey