Title: Irish Baroque Orchestra plays Bach
Label: RTÉ lyric fm
Cat No.: RTÉ lyric CD 108

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Available from the Irish Baroque Orchestra office and at all IBO concert performances at a special release price of € 15.99 including post & packaging.

Also available at all good record shops nationwide.
Picture this: a collection of musicians lounging on the grass in the June sunshine outside the Aula Maxima in Maynooth. Within a short time everyone moves inside and soon it is clear that this is going to be a special recording: over the following three days there is laughter, moments of frustration and debate, and much great, great music. Music that is great, not just because it is being played by some of Ireland’s finest musicians but because it was composed by various members of the world’s most enduring musical families, the Bachs.

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the few composers that has influenced musicians across the entire musical landscape; from traditional to classical to rock and pop! The Brandenburg Concerto no.4 in G and Concerto for Two Violins in D minor are two of his most popular orchestral works. The slow movement of the Concerto for Two Violins has been described as a ‘melody of exquisite calmness and peace’. His cousin Johann Bernhard Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G minor sounds almost Italian and is played with great gusto by the IBO. Whilst JS Bach’s elder son, Wihelm Friedman Bach in his Adagio and Fugue in D minor presents us with an arrestingly moving piece which many will hear here for the first time. The CD opens with the six movement Suite no.1 in G minor by JS Bach’s uncle, Johann Bernhard Bach.

“If this were a piece of baroque Irish furniture I would be telling you about its beauty, its grandeur or its exquisite carvings. Instead RTÉ lyric fm is proud that its new CD, Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach, is a superb modern recording on authentic instruments. This is truly a CD you will revisit again and again.” Aodán Ó Dubhghaill, Head RTÉ lyric fm.

The Irish Baroque Orchestra is Ireland’s only professional period instrument orchestra among whose members are some of the most promising young players in the international early music scene. The IBO is fortunate to be directed by London-born Monica Huggett, one of the world’s leading baroque violinists who has won many awards for her recordings and her work as a pioneer of early music.

“I’m very pleased to launch The Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach. It is a wonderful collaboration between RTÉ lyric fm, the talented young musicians of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and director Monica Huggett which brings to life the music of the Bach composers.” Minister for Arts, Sports & Tourism, John O’Donoghue