Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Orchestral Suite no. 4 in D major, BWV1069

For a year and a half since their European tour was cut short due to the outbreak of the pandemic, Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan have been grounded in Japan, performing domestically despite restrictions.

CoCo's players used a minimum of overt embellishment, always effective and appropriate, as if they felt that nothing more was needed than the printed notes.

During Henry Wood’s Prom years, Wednesday was Bach Night. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Proms revived this tradition in the final week with a couple of modern twists.

A disappointing performance of Bach's four Orchestra; Suites from the Academy of Ancient Music, on tour to the United States. 

"Glorious Bach" offered up exactly what it said on the tin as Royal Northern Sinfonia, with their guest conductor, baroque specialist, Laurence Cummings delivered some of Bach’s happiest music in a radiant and unfussy way.

Stephanie Blythe appeared in recital with Les Violons du Roy Saturday evening at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal, the second stop in a seven-city tour that the renowned mezzo-soprano is taking with the ensemble this fall. Blythe performed Haydn’s infrequently heard cantata Arianna a Naxos and favorite arias from Handel’s Giulio Cesare.

Today it is thought that J.S. Bach’s chamber and ensemble music, including the four Orchestral Suites, date from his time in Leipzig from the 1720s onwards. When all the Orchestral Suites (BWV1066–1069) are put together, their inventive and varied nature is evident. The suites make great use of all ensemble instruments and incorporate a range of structures, as well as internal forms and dances.

How do you like your Baroque? Extreme – all gut strings and not a chin-rest in sight? Or mid-twentieth century – molto vibrato with saxophone obbligato? There is, of course, a half way house, and in last night’s packed Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, the SCO steered firmly towards it, producing several agreeable surprises along the way.

If you love Bach – and who doesn’t? – Birmingham was the place to be this weekend, for a delicious series of concerts, lectures and discoveries at the Town Hall and Symphony Hall under the heading ‘Bach: A Beautiful Mind’.

The New York based Mostly Mozart Festival is easily overshadowed by Tanglewood Summer Season at the same time in Massachusetts, but it would be careless to underestimate its quality. The programme on August 5th, 2011 banished any doubt about its ability to live up to world standards.Conductor for the evening was Spaniard Pablo Heras-Casado.