Continuo Connect — Concert // Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

No ‘solo virtuoso versus the band’ displays allowed here – Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are a triumph of teamwork. The soloists are drawn from within the orchestra itself, often in the unlikeliest of combinations.

The soft recorders and whirling solo violin of No.4 contrast with the strident supergroup of trumpet, woodwind and violin in No.2. In No.6, the spotlight falls on a pair of mellow, sweet-toned violas working in tandem, and No.3 is no less than a concerto for nine solo strings, a dizzying tag-team display that hurls the material from one end of the sonic spectrum to the other and back again. This is a treasure chest of imagination and instrumental colour perfectly suited to OAE’s brilliance.