A new recording with Ensemble Odyssee: Bach concertos

In April 2024, my Ensemble Odyssee finally realised a project that had been on our wishlist for a long time: a recording of concertos for flute, hobo, violin or harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach. We all know that Bach has been recorded over and over, and that the world doesn’t really need another version of a well-known piece. On the other hand, if everyone enjoys both playing and listening to Bach, there is no reason not to grant ourselves the pleasure of creating an album with this music. We have played many concerts with pieces by Bach and we feel that the repertoire fits us very well as an ensemble. Our concerts have always been a success, so also the audience seems to appreciate our approach.

In order to add an original touch to the programme, we chose pieces that are either reconstructions or arrangements of existing concertos for different instruments.
A classic, transcribed by Bach himself, is the concerto for harpsichord and two recorders BWV 1057, also known as the second version of the forth Brandenburg Concerto. Another piece on the CD is my reconstruction of the violin concerto in d minor after the earliest versions of what later became the harpsichord concerto BWV 1052. We performed both these pieces in our numerous “In Freundschaft” concerts.

Anna Stegmann chose to arrange the harpsichord concerto BWV 1053 in E major (which is also considered to be an original oboe concerto) for forth flute (the piece resulting in E flat major, unlike the common transcriptions for recorder in D major). As an extra colour in the orchestra, we added oboes and taille to double the violins just like Bach did in his cantatas BWV 169 and 49, where the first and third movement of the concerto appear.
As an oboe concerto we chose a transcription of BWV 1057, the harpsichord concerto in f minor, which is often played on the violin in G minor, but also fits the oboe very well in this tonality. Its slow movement also appears as an oboe solo in cantata 156.

This album represents the work we have been doing in the past years and we are very happy to finally “document” it now. We were also very lucky to have most of our regular Odyssee players on board, and to play this music with a fantastic team.

Anna Stegmann recorder
Georg Fritz oboe and recorder
Eva Saladin violin
Andrea Friggi harpsichord

Elise van der Wel, Ivan Iliev,
Tomoe Badiarova violin
Nadine Henrichs viola
Agnieszka Oszańca violoncello
Hen Goldsobel violone
Daniel Lanthier oboe
Hanna Lindeier taille

Please check our Facebook page for some video excerpts.