BWV 1048

I couldn’t find the digitized cover for Brandenburg #3 by Musica Antiqua Köln, but that’s the core of what I write here tonight.

i recently re-read some first-time reactions to the 1986-87 recording by Musica Antiqua Köln of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos on the J.S. Bach Website, with the surprise then of listeners. They complained it was awful; it was too fast. Gross.

Come on! These players capture the spirit of the music, with such precision and dynamics to awaken one’s soul. Strap on some headphones, and you’ll go for a wholly ride (to quote, recently, the actor/scientologist Tom Cruise).

I have listened to this work hundreds of times; during my high school years, we’d roll down the windows, and turn-up good old “Brandenburg 3″ on repeat. It would later catch my attention in a work I wrote for a graduate class on baroque musicology and the musica poetica. While I own many recordings, this one, and this track, the second (some call it the third) movement of #3, is the best.

Even after some 20 years.