Busch Chamber Players: Bach Brandenburg Concertos

I do not consider my tastes in musical performance to be old-fashioned; but I certainly recognise they are currently unfashionable, especially among opinion-makers and media gurus. Down from the shelves – after a long rest – came Adolf Busch and friends playing the Bach Brandenburg concertos (mid- 1930s recordings). By Jove, I enjoyed these performances! There is a palpable sense of musicians enjoying themselves, much as they may have done at Cöthen some 300 years ago, and the line-up of the star musicians of the mid-1930s makes a welcome change from the often somewhat stereotyped “authentic” performers on other sets. So the horns, trumpet, harpsichord (!) etc. are not exactly what Bach would have expected to hear. But I think that he, essentially a highly practical musician who cared more for texture than exact timbre, would have muttered something like: “Whatever sounds best, this evening”. A man who could re-cast a Prelude for solo violin (E major partita) for solo organ in the opening Sinfonia of the cantata BWV 29 was not one to worry about vibrato, which kind of keyboard instrument, which wood the oboe was made from, etc. There are creative artists, writers and thinkers who are anchored firmly in their epoques: for example, John Le Carré, Karl Marx, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. There are others who espouse eternal values: for example, Johann Sebastian Bach, or William Shakespeare (amongst many, many others).

With Adolf Busch at the helm you get balance, dedication, enjoyment, “correct” tempos (whatever that might mean). The EMI transfers from circa 1990 are not the best, with digital glare in the treble, and the sense you are at least two stages removed from the original recorded sound. During that period, transfers to CD were production-line stuff, with little individual care. However, the sound on the CDs is not that bad and, again, the balance is a model of how things should be done with the sonically difficult Brandenburgs (with their miscellaneous mixtures of solo instruments). Compared with some of today's Formula One tempi, Busch and friends can often sound leisurely; I would prefer to call them relaxed.

Hopefully in some attic or other there exists a mint condition set of the original 78s that will find themselves to the workbenches of transfer artists such as Praga Digital or Pristine Audio. In the meantime, the EMI CD set will have to suffice; it gives me a lot of pleasure just sitting back and listening to it.