Sontraud Speidel, Evelinde Trenkner - J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos arr. for 2 Pianos by Max Reger (1996)

If you know and love the Brandenburgs, seriously consider listening to these renditions for piano duo. In the imagination place yourself in the days before recording; hearing these peices in that way will give an idea of what it must have been like to know Bach, to want to hear Bach, to have the muscial skills to play Bach, but have no chamber orchestra at your disposal. A piano or two would do, if you had Reger's transcriptions. Why wait years for the next concert, if you could play them today? And because Reger loved Bach each piece has an air of homage. The care and precisiion of the works comes through; the peices are not just a way to make do with a mere piano, but have an aura of living music, or music brought back to life in a new way. It's quite difficult to believe that Bach himself did not sit down at the clavichord from time to time and play some of these passages himself. Now we can hear them that way, too. Sample especially the Third and Sixth.