Bach: Brandenburg Concertos – Gewandhausorchester/Chailly

Since he became the Leipzig Gewandhaus's Kapellmeister in 2005, Riccardo Chailly has been at pains to emphasise the music of the two composers most closely associated with the city: Mendelssohn and Bach. Several of Chailly's Mendelssohn recordings have already been released, and this set of the Brandenburg Concertos is evidently the start of a Bach series, with both the St Matthew Passion and the Christmas Oratorio scheduled to appear later this year. Perhaps they will turn out to be less problematic than these concertos, for though Chailly is an outstanding conductor, and the Gewandhaus is one of Europe's great orchestras, there is something deadeningly old-fashioned about the performances. The concertos are played on modern instruments, of course, and the only real concessions to historical practice are the use of recorders rather than flutes in the second and fourth, and a pair of viola da gambas in the sixth. Chailly does bring a spring to the rhythms, and the playing is everything you would expect from such a high-class combination, but textures remain thick and unwieldy. When the catalogue is already overflowing with so many more stylish performances, it is hard to imagine anyone other than hardcore Chailly fans buying such a retro set.