Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concertos

English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner. (Originally released on Erato 4509-91800-2 [2 CDs] recorded January, 1983)

The English Baroque Soloists are a virtuoso period band, wonderfully well recorded here, and Gardiner elicits readings from them that are masterfully shaped and inflected, full of resilience, energy, and life. These are foot-tapping performances, as earthy as they are courtly, and unmatched in their richness and piquancy of sound. What is notable, in addition to the wonderful pointing of rhythm, is the real expressiveness of the playing. - Ted Libbey