TDBH What did the music of Bach & Handel sound like back in their days?

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JSBach GFHandel

The story of the 'Brandenburg Concertos' (with eleven audio clips at that link), proffered as an employment application in 1721 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and left to languish unplayed in a library by Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, for whom they were written, is well known. On the margrave's death they were sold for $22USD in silver at 2008 prices. The manuscript was discovered again in 1749 and published the following year. The six concerti are regarded by many as the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era.

In the three centuries since the concerti were assembled—they were probably written over the decade before they became the collection we now know—playing techniques and instruments have changed. Similarly with the music of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): his 'Water Music' was first performed in 1717. Scholars have tried to work out how the music may have sounded differently back in the times of the composers. Without audio recordings of any kind—you will observe that even the portraits are paintings and possibly flattering to the sitters—that will always be open to argument.

One of the pre-emint champions in Britain of the 'early music' style of performance was Robert Thurston ('Bob') Dart (1921-1971). In the 1950s his performances of Bach's 'Brandenburg Concertos' and Handel's 'Water Music' raised some eyebrows (a sign of outrage in those parts at that time) and more than a few hackles. The 'new' style and the 'old' styles—or should that be the other way round?—now sit alongside each other much more comfortably.

Listening again to those pieces, performed by Dart, they sound as delightfully old, wheezy, and rusty as they did more than half a century ago. Dart's failing health at an early age meant that as his musical contemporaries became household names—Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, to name three—but Dart retired from the public spotlight. His work lives gloriously on, like the Baroque musical giants whose work he helped to rescue from a death by beige performance.

ThurstonDart

The thumbnails of Thurston Dart are from a dedicated TD section on the
Greg Holt website, whence you should repair for these and TD other delights.

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