[TR24][OF] Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings, David Blackadder - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2, 3 & 5 (BWV 1047,1048,1050) (Live) - 2025 (Classical • Concertos)

foobar2000 v2.1.6 / DR Meter v0.7
log date: 2025-12-14 10:00:02
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Analyzed: Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings & David Blackadder / J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2, 3 & 5 (Live)
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DR         Peak           RMS       Duration Track
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DR13      -1.02 dBFS   -17.44 dBFS      5:07 01-Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: I. — (Live)
DR13      -4.53 dBFS   -23.14 dBFS      3:24 02-Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: II. Andante (Live)
DR13      -1.02 dBFS   -17.95 dBFS      2:55 03-Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: III. Allegro assai (Live)
DR14      -5.97 dBFS   -22.87 dBFS      5:51 04-Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048: I. — (Live)
DR8      -19.77 dBFS   -36.09 dBFS      0:13 05-Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048: II. Adagio (Live)
DR13      -6.45 dBFS   -23.70 dBFS      4:52 06-Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048: III. Allegro (Live)
DR14      -8.26 dBFS   -26.17 dBFS      9:52 07-Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: I. Allegro (Live)
DR12     -10.66 dBFS   -29.07 dBFS      6:11 08-Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: II. Affettuoso (Live)
DR14      -7.49 dBFS   -24.74 dBFS      5:20 09-Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: III. Allegro (Live)
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Number of tracks:  9
Official DR value: DR13
Samplerate:        192000 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   24
Bitrate:           5608 kbps
Codec:             FLAC
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The Academy of Ancient Music is among the most highly regarded period-instrument orchestras in the world. Initially focused on the music of the Baroque, the Academy has grown to perform music from the Classical period as well as new music written for historical instruments. The orchestra has recorded and performed prolifically since its founding, working with leading performers and ensembles from the historical performance sphere and beyond. The orchestra has continued its prolific recording pace, including a recording of the opera The Judgment of Paris by John Weldon in 2025.
Keyboardist Christopher Hogwood established the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, using as his model an ensemble that had been founded in 1726 to perform music that was at least 150 years old. Thus, Hogwood's orchestra was one of the first in modern times to perform Baroque works on Baroque instruments. Hogwood chose members who were not only masters of their instruments but also scholars of the performance style of the period. The orchestra quickly gained recognition for its authentic performances and recordings, or at least stirred up musicological debate. In 1978, it spawned a Classical period orchestra to perform the works of Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporaries. That orchestra has recorded or taken on recording the complete symphonies of Mozart (the first such cycle on period instruments), Haydn, and Beethoven, and the complete piano concertos of Beethoven and Mozart. Recorded for Decca, these were under the direction of Hogwood, who also led recordings of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice, and Handel's Rinaldo, all of which were prize winners and featured Cecilia Bartoli.
In 1996, Andrew Manze was named associate director, and Paul Goodwin was named associate conductor, allowing the Academy to expand its performance schedule and begin recording for the Harmonia Mundi label. The Academy also began extending invitations to others, such as Stephen Cleobury with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge; Edward Higginbottom with the Choir of New College, Oxford; Stephen Layton with Polyphony; and Masaaki Suzuki with the Japan Bach Collegium to be guest directors, furthering the Academy's vocal and choral repertoire. Instrumentalists Giuliano Carmignola, Richard Egarr, and Pavlo Beznosiuk were also asked to guest direct.
Goodwin began commissioning new works specifically for the distinctive instruments of the Academy, the first being 1997's Eternity's Sunrise for voice & baroque ensemble by John Tavener. Other commissioned works came from David Bedford, John Woolrich, whose Arcangelo for the group commemorated the 350th birthday of Arcangelo Corelli, and Thea Musgrave. Mahan Esfahani was commissioned to orchestrate Bach's Art of the Fugue, giving its premiere at the 2012 BBC Proms.
Manze stepped down from his post in 2003 as the Academy celebrated its 30th anniversary. The ensemble marked the year by also celebrating the Corelli anniversary and the 60th birthday of John Tavener in special concerts and by beginning an exploration of the music of Mendelssohn, once again expanding its musicological horizons. Egarr was named associate director in 2005 and music director the following year, succeeding Hogwood, who was named director emeritus. The Academy's discography continues to grow, recording for the Decca, Signum Classics, and ABC Classics labels, among others. In 2013, the orchestra created and began recording on its own label, AAM Records, where it issued a recording of Dussek's Messe Solemnelle in 2020. That year, the Academy was also heard on a recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the King's College Choir under Cleobury.
In 2021, keyboardist and conductor Laurence Cummings succeeded Egarr as music director. The orchestra continued its rigorous recording schedule in the mid-2020s, including the conclusion of a Mozart piano concerto cycle with pianist Robert Levin that had been paused for over 20 years; the cycle's final installment was issued in 2024. The following year, it was heard with the Cambridge Handel Opera on a recording of the opera The Judgment of Paris by John Weldon, a little-known English Baroque composer who was a student of Henry Purcell's. ~ Patsy Morita & Keith Finke
Laurence Cummings has amassed a large catalog of recordings both as a harpsichordist and, increasingly often during his later career, as a conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music and other ensembles. Known as a specialist in the music of Handel, he has also recorded music by many other Baroque composers.
Cummings was born in Birmingham, England, in 1968. He attended the Solihull School in the West Midlands and then went on to Christ Church College at Oxford University. His choice of a musical career was cemented as he attended the Royal College of Music in London, at first focusing on the harpsichord. Among his teachers was Jill Severs. Soon, Cummings was landing continuo slots with leading early music groups in Britain and beyond, including The Sixteen, Les Arts Florissants, and the Gabrieli Consort. He made his recording debut in 1995 as a solo harpsichordist, issuing an album of suites by Louis Couperin on the Naxos label. Cummings recorded several more albums of harpsichord music on Naxos in the late '90s and early 2000s.
In the new century, Cummings became increasingly interested in conducting. His album debut as a conductor came on the BIS label in 2001, with a recording of Handel's Gloria (rediscovered only that year) and Dixit Dominus, HWV 232. Cummings has conducted both early music groups, including The English Concert, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and conventional ensembles such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Ulster Orchestra, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. His U.S. debut came with Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, and he has also conducted the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Cummings became artistic director of Germany's Göttingen International Handel Festival in 2011. He has conducted opera at the English National Opera and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and many of his recordings in the 2010s, made for Accent and other labels, were of Handel operas or oratorios. From 1997 to 2012, Cummings was Head of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music. He released a pair of albums in 2022, issuing a recording of Handel's opera Rodelinda, HWV 19, with the FestspielOrchester Göttingen on Accent, and backing countertenor Randall Scotting with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on The Crown: Heroic Arias for Senesino.