From the archives
Andrew Mcgregor revisits Musica Antiqua Köln’s still startlingly fresh recordings under Reinhard Goebel
‘I was a troublemaker’ says Reinhard Goebel, when asked what made the sparks fly in rehearsals with Musica Antiqua Köln, the period instrument ensemble the 21-year-old violinist founded in 1973. It’s that sense of pushing the envelope, refusing to accept the bland or routine that always invigorated their recordings. So much of this set of Musica Antiqua Köln: Complete Recordings (Archiv 486 2063; 75 CDS) is still startlingly fresh. The box begins with JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos in exhilarating performances, the last movement of Brandenburg 3 taking off with breathtaking vigour. You could never take their Bach for granted, as anyone who heard their pioneering Art of Fugue will know. Even in the 1990s they were bringing forgotten repertoire to life; I remember the impact of Dresden concertos by Heinichen, and Telemann’s wind concertos before he was more fashionable.
MAK’S musicians constantly changed, which kept things fresh, and I’d forgotten how many recordings they made with excellent singers: Bach cantatas with Christine Schäfer, Dorothea Röschmann and Christoph Genz, and laments by the wider Bach family with Magdalena Kožená. Other favourites are the double harpsichord concertos by Bach’s sons in vivacious accounts from Andreas Staier and Robert Hill, and Goebel and Manfred Kraemer in Biber’s violin music, plus his spectacular Salzburg Mass with Mccreesh and the Gabrieli Consort.
MAK’S last recording was Telemann quartets in 2004; Goebel disbanded them two years later, and a physical condition forced him to switch hands, teaching himself to play violin ‘the wrong way round’, which tells you a lot about his tenacity. He gave up playing, but as Goebel celebrates his 70th birthday this year, he’s still ruffling feathers... ‘I see the future of Baroque orchestral music in the hands of modern ensembles – the fetish of the “original instrument” has had its day…for it isn’t the instrument that makes the music, but the head!’