This is sheer delight. The Brandenburg Concertos, a landmark in the history of music, receive a bright, spirited, highly skilled performance, using period instruments and baroque performance techniques. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra has members with virtuoso skills, who take the spotlight gracefully for solos but also play with true ensemble spirit, exactly what the music requires. The Brandenburgs are a brilliantly contrasting set of masterpieces, exploring a variety of forms and textures from the intimate viol ensemble (already old-fashioned in Bach's lifetime) to a big-band sound that looks forward to the classical orchestra. The performance is given in the elegant Hall of Mirrors of Cothen Castle, where the concertos were composed when Bach was the music director. Close-up views of the period instruments--valveless horns, wooden flute, one-key baroque oboes, and a most unusual trumpet--give a vivid idea of where the music is coming from and what is happening. --Joe McLellan
