Stretto Magazine’s Michael Dutrieue reviews The Brandenburg Duets:
“Like many of Bach’s cycles, such as the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Wohltemperierte Klavier”, the Brandenburg concerti also form a masterful anthology and demonstration of all imaginable possibilities that were inherent to a particular musical form. Each of these six concertos demands a different combination of soloists among the brass players, the strings, the reed players and the woodwinds, the four groups of the then “Stadtpfeifer”. All this can be heard here on piano, albeit with twenty fingers. …
Behind all these refined sound combinations of “well-beaten Hofmusik”, Bach’s Brandenburg concerts are a baroque “Fürstenallegory”. The monarchs of the baroque celebrated in verses and music, paintings and architecture, and always through the ancient gods, their actions and virtues as ideal rulers. Each of the six Brandenburg concerts refers to a central virtue or role of the monarch who is personified by an ancient deity.
Now imagine that all that polyphonic and contrapuntal richness and various sonorous colors should be reproduced, by the sound of a piano alone. Well, with twenty fingers that works, in the case of Eleonor Bindman and Jenny Lin. In contrast to the only published piano duet arrangement by Max Reger from 1905, the new transcription by Eleonor Bindman (photo) of the Brandenburg concerti, their polyphony, emphasizes how Bach might have divided the score, he had composed four-part inventions for piano duet.…
With an equal collaboration between the two instrumentalists, using the full potential of the modern piano, to convey the unique writing and character of each concerto, the six concertos by both pianists Eleanor Bindman and Jenny Lin were arranged ( 1-3-5-6-4-2), that they create a fascinating listening series. Because Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti were never intended to be performed as a continuous series, their order is of little importance. You should not miss this version. It is very original and very, very special. Highly recommended.”
