Bach Akademie Australia | The Brandenburg Concertos

15 November 2025, The Neilson, Walsh Bay, NSW

Program
J.S. Bach:

Concerto No. 1 in F major BWV 1046
Concerto No. 2 in F major BWV 1047
Concerto No. 3 in G major BWV 1048
Concerto No. 4 in G major BWV 1049
Concerto No. 5 in D major BWV 1050
Concerto No. 6 in B flat major BWV 1051

This concert was audacious in several ways. The whole idea of putting on a single concert of all the Brandenburgs is a bit mad really. Six concertos makes for a long concert. Also the music is exacting and each concerto is for a different instrumental grouping, making for some pretty complicated rehearsal scheduling.

Audacious too, is performing all this in the ACO’s Neilson auditorium. It is a magnificent venue for chamber music; great acoustics and excellent sight lines, but it has only 275 seats, which makes the economics difficult. The BAA has an impressive list of sponsors which would certainly have made a major contribution. If this was you, thank you for your generosity.

Even the existence of this group is audacious. A few years ago Madeleine Easton, the Artistic Director, left a blossoming career as a senior violinist with the premier early music orchestras of Europe to return to Australia to form the Bach Akademie here. A risky career move, but, in hindsight, one for which we are grateful. The BAA has emerged as an early music ensemble on par with the best in Europe. And to have its focus primarily on one composer, JS Bach, shows an audacity of vision and faith that Australian audiences have the required musical sophistication.

These works are probably the best known of all Baroque concertos, so audience expectations are high. This too carries an element of risk; the performance needs to be interesting enough to be musically satisfying without trampling on the fact that every audience member “knows” how it should be played; the way they are used to, and familiar with. On the less risky side, the odd slow movement not-withstanding, these concertos are all in major keys and relentlessly cheerful. In fact the players clearly enjoyed performing them and their shared joy and smiles infused the music and infected the audience.

Hence a call out to the violas. They usually have a fairly mundane time filling out the inner harmonies, with maybe an occasional scrap of melody thrown their way. Then along comes Brandenburg number three for three each of violins, violas and cellos plus continuo, all parts of equal importance and relentlessly active. The cool violins took it in their stride as they do, being used to the limelight and constant melodies. The violas however beamed from ear to ear, relishing every moment; what a delight to participate in their joy. And then, in the 6th concerto, there were none of those bright-sounding pesky violins at all. Finally the rich warm viola tone was able to shine. Revenge of the violas at last!

There are too many exceptional things to say about this performance, but a few particular aspects are singled out here.

The greatest audacity of them all is the natural trumpet part in BWV 1047. The only advice I could offer to a trumpet player who is approached to play this is: RUN AWAY! The part is fast and furious, completely exposed and astronomically high. We commend Richard Fomison for his thrilling performance and bravery for not scarpering.

In the concertante of number two, Bach scored a treble recorder against an oboe and a trumpet. What was he thinking? It is like coming to a bazooka fight with a pea-shooter. Anyway, Mikaela Oberg broke through with intricate ornamentation, clever articulation and elegantly shaped phrasing. In the fourth concerto, which has two solo recorders (and no overbearing competitors), she was joined by Alicia Crossley and they produced a gorgeous tonal blend, utterly together. To play as one through rubatos shows a great deal of preparation.

Some of the Adagio slow movements are notated as nothing more than a few transitional chords. Easton improvised a beautiful melodic embellishment in the third concerto.

Bach’s fifth Brandenburg is famous because it is the first ever keyboard concerto, and not only that, the cadenza in the first movement is fully written out. That practice did not really take hold until the time of Beethoven. Neal Peres Da Costa played this with rhapsodic virtuosity. In the slow movement he played the melody slightly ahead of the beat set down by the left hand bass, giving it what jazz musicians call a swing. It don’t mean a thing…

The high quality program notes for BAA concerts are usually written by Easton and these are amongst the best of any we have encountered. In this instance (she must have had her plate full with all the audacity going on) we were treated to the same standard of well informed and interesting notes written by Roland Peelman.

This was a wonderful concert and the warmth between performers and audience was palpable. All that audacity paid off.

Photo credit – Keith Saunders