Tag: The Hanover Band

Playing With Numbers III, Hanover Band, Wigmore Hall, 4 May 2000

A concert of Vivaldi pieces, performed by the Hanover Band, led by Richard Egarr.

A Thursday evening concert – both of us had pretty chock-full diaries in those days, but Janie and I both managed to limit our appointments to avoid late afternoon ones.

We heard:

  • Concerto in G minor for 2 violins and cello Op 3 No 2
  • Motet “In Furore Iustissimae Irae” for soprano, 2 violins, viola and bass
  • Concerto in E minor for violin Op 6 No 5
  • Concerto in D minor for violin Op 6 No 6
  • Motet “Per la Solennita di S. Antonio” Vos aurae per montes
  • Concerto in D major for 4 violins, Op 3 No 1

Here’s at least a sample from each of the pieces we heard that night – sadly none by The Hanover Band who didn’t tend to record this stuff. The “In furore iustissimae irae” is worth the price of admission alone.

Bach At The Proms, Royal Albert Hall, 2 August 1993

Our first Prom together. BBC Prom I’m talking about. And when I say, “together”, that wasn’t just me and Janie – oh no – we also had her mother, Pauline, in tow.

In truth Janie wasn’t too keen on the idea of a “classical concert”, whereas Pauline was a keen music listener.

Still, Janie professed to liking Brandenberg Concertos, so this concert, entirely comprising J S Bach works, including three of the Brandenbergs, seemed a suitable entry point. This, despite my reservations about the Royal Albert Hall as a venue for baroque period music.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom. The Hanover Band with some cracking soloists: Anthony Robson, Benjamin Hudson, Catherine Latham, Robert Farley, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Rachel Brown, directed by Anthony Halstead.

This is what we heard:

  • Brandenburg Concerto No 2 in F major, BWV 1047
  • Keyboard Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056
  • Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major
  • Concerto for Two Keyboards in C minor, BWV 1060 (version for oboe & violin)
  • Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D major, BWV 1050

Here is a later recording of The Hanover Band doing Brandenberg 5:

Meirion Bowen in the Guardian rated this Prom highly, while concurring with my view about the unsuitability of baroque music scaled authentically in the Albert Hall:

Hanover Prom Bowen GuardianHanover Prom Bowen Guardian 04 Aug 1993, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com