As a conductor, I think Brüggen's box set of Haydn's Sturm & Drang, Paris and London symphonies is without peer:

 

I certainly agree with this. I would also recommend his first recording of the Beethoven symphonies (I don't care for the overreverberant acoustic on the second set), as well as his recordings of Schubert and Mendelssohn symphonies. He recorded the Bach St. Matthew, but I find the performance a bit too small-scale.

 

Haydn and Rameau. He also had a pretty good Tafelmusik. Not sure about his recorder recordings, some with the Kuijkens, on Seon or DHM.

 

By the way, I forgot to say that I got interested in him after enjoying this K491 with John Gibbons

 

Simple, listen to how he started: as a recorder player.

Regarding his work as a conductor, I actually like everything he recorded for Philips. The releases with the red band at the top of the cover. I don't think there are any mediocre recordings among them. Highly acclaimed recordings include the complete Beethoven symphonies and the Rameau Suites.

 

Simple, listen to how he started: as a recorder player.

Regarding his work as a conductor, I actually like everything he recorded for Philips. The releases with the red band at the top of the cover. I don't think there are any mediocre recordings among them. Highly acclaimed recordings include the complete Beethoven symphonies and the Rameau Suites.

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The Bach recorder concerto is wonderful! Thanks

 

I won't disrecommend the Haydn; I had the 2 "London" twofers and was still happy to get the whole box 20 years ago or so before it became intermittently rare. But I think it's a bit of a mixed bag with the Paris set probably the most easily recommendable section.

Note that the Paris and later are live and the sound quality not always as good as one would expect from 1990s studio recordings. While Brüggen does not suffer from playing everything as lean and fast as possible (as IMO Weil mostly did in his truncated Sony Haydn), he can sometimes err in the direction of slow and wayward (a bit like Harnoncourt in that respect).
Additionally he has a few other mannerism I don't like, e.g. wildly varying tempi (some are indicated but I have never heard the piece like that before and I used to find it wilful and gimmicky, maybe I'd be less bothered nowadays) in the finale of #98 (the one with the keyboard solo) and another thing in #94 I won't spoil.

I don't know the Beethoven symphony recordings well enough; the violin concerto with Zehetmair is very good.

 

I don't know the Beethoven symphony recordings well enough; the violin concerto with Zehetmair is very good.

I forgot about that recording. It's too bad that Brüggen never recorded the Beethoven piano concerti.

 

He made the recorder both salonfähig and sexy.
Until then it had an underappreciated image.

As a conductor or an ensemble leader: I went to a few of his concerts and it was awesome. The joy of making music was both audible and visible.

It's tough for me to make a selection of his 'best' recordings.
There are a few editions of him, both as an instrumentalist and as a conductor. You can pick anything... there's a lot to enjoy.
I did not care for f.i. his Matthäus-Passion recording though. That one was also screwed by awful editing... a badly edited mixture of 2 live performances. His Johannes-Passion for Philips was very good, and so was his Oster-Oratorium for Glossa. His Beethoven symphony cycle for Philips was great, with the exception of the 9th maybe. His Rameau, Haydn & Mozart recordings are very enjoyable. Never a dull moment.

Playing Telemann on the recorder:

Conducting Mozart's Gran Partita:

 

As a conductor or an ensemble leader: I went to a few of his concerts and it was awesome. The joy of making music was both audible

I thought of this comment while listening to his wonderful, joyful, Creatures of Prometheus.

 

If you search for "Frans Bruggen docu" on YouTube, you'll find several documentaries. They're often in Dutch (like the documentary "Twee mannen en een orkest" - Two Men and an Orchestra). Often entire scenes in English because the orchestra was international.


All great recordings!

 

You missed one of the best:

 

I've most liked Frans Brüggen's various Haydn and Mozart recordings on Philips, his Rameau on Philips & Glossa, and his first Philips recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies 1-9, Schubert Symphonies 1-9, and the Mendelssohn 3-5 Symphonies. There's also a good Mendelssohn "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Other than those recordings, you might explore Brüggen's late live recordings of the Bach Mass in B minor, Bach St. John Passion, and Bach Easter Oratorio on Glossa, which I've preferred to his early Bach recordings on Philips.

--Haydn: Symphonies - Sturm und Drang, Paris & London - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Frans Brüggen

Bruggen's equally fine Mozart will probably have to be listened to on an individual basis, since to my knowledge it hasn't all been boxed yet. EDIT: I was wrong, there is an 11CD Box set devoted to Brüggen's Mozart for Philips:

--Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 31 & 35 - Orchestra of the 18th Century · Frans Brüggen

--Beethoven, Symphonies 1-9, Violin Concerto (with Thomas Zehetmair), Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen - I much prefer his earlier Philips cycle to the later live cycle from Rotterdam on Glossa,

--Schubert, Symphonies 1-9, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen

--Mendelssohn, Symphonies Nos. 3, 4, & 5, The Hebrides, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen

--Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Bruggen
- YouTube

--Rameau: Les Boréades Suite; Dardanus Suite, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen, Philips
Rameau: Suite Les Boréades, RCT 31 - 1. Ouverture

--Rameau: Orchestral Suites, Orchestra of the 18th century, Frans Brüggen, Glossa
Acante et Céphise (Orchestral Excerpts) : Ouverture

--Rameau: Suite "Castor et Pollux", Purcell 3 Fantasies, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen
Purcell: Fantasia à 5 "Upon one note", Z. 745

--Bach, Mass in B minor, Cappella Amsterdam, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brggen, live in Warsaw, Glossa,
Mass in B Minor, BWV 232: Kyrie eleison (Chorus)

--Bach, Easter Oratorio, Capella Amsterdam, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen, Pieter-Jan Belber,

Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35: Concerto

https://www.classicalexplorer.com/bachs-easter-oratorio-revisited/

In addition to his well reviewed Beethoven Violin Concerto with violinist Thomas Zehetmair, already mentioned, Brüggen also recorded Mozart's Complete Violin Concertos & Sinfonia Concertante with Zehetmair and the Orchestra of the 18th Century, which is worth checking out (I liked these recordings),

Violin Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Major, K. 207: I. Allegro moderato

As a soloist, I'm only aware of the recordings that Brüggen made on the recorder, as part of a group of pioneering musicians that included Leonhardt, the Kuijken brothers, Bylsma, Schröder, and others, in the early days of the period movement in the 1960s, when they were all driving around the Netherlands in a Volkswagen bus giving concerts.

--Italian Recorder Sonatas - Frans Brüggen, Anner Bylsma, Gustav Leonhardt, 1967:
- YouTube

--J. S. Bach: Flute Sonatas, etc.--Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt
Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1030: I. Andante (Instrumental)

--Handel Recorder Sonatas - Frans Brüggen, Anner Bylsma, Gustav Leonhardt, 1962
Recorder Sonata in A Minor, Op. 1 No. 4, HWV 362: I. Larghetto

--Telemann "Paris" Quartets - Frans Brüggen, Jaap Schröder, Anner Bylsma, Gustav Leonhardt
Nouveaux quatuors "Paris Quartets": No. 1 in D Major, TWV 43:D3: I. Prélude

Etc.

Hope that helps.

 

I completely forgot about his Machaut, where he plays a long lay with Lucia Meeuwsen

 

I was referring to Brüggen editions earlier.
I meant this one... it's a gem.
With Brüggen not only playing recorders, but also the traverso.
And with a lot of other baroque legends.

https://www.discogs.com/release/6295088-Frans-Brüggen-Frans-Brüggen-Edition

 

Tremendous live Schubert unfinished from 2007 - chamber music textures, slowed down and full of unnameable ineffable feelings.

 

I wanted to write a story about how Bruggen became incredibly popular as a recorder player. Young people would wait for him after concerts for an autograph. His success was such that he drove around in a red Porsche at the time. His records came with a large poster that teenagers could hang in their bedrooms.

But look, I see this article where all that is mentioned, including a photo of the poster: Tribute to Frans Brüggen – Calliope's Sister

And watch this. Actus Tragicus from Bach with Frans Bruggen (recorder). Do you recognize the organ player?

 

I wanted to write a story about how Bruggen became incredibly popular as a recorder player. Young people would wait for him after concerts for an autograph. His success was such that he drove around in a red Porsche at the time. His records came with a large poster that teenagers could hang in their bedrooms.

[...]

Yep, he was a good looking poster boy.
Much to the benefit of the recorder as a serious (and even sexy) instrument, and also much to the benefit of baroque music in general.

Both he and Leonhardt were very much into fast cars.
No surprise really, being such severe Bach performers.

He also became (in)famous for his comment during one of the 'Notenkraker-actie' protests (1969):
"Every note of Mozart and Bach performed by the Concertgebouw Orkest is a lie from A to Z".
That kinda shook up the Dutch classical music world.

Let's just say that Brüggen became a bit more moderate and diplomatic in later years.

 

Do you recognize the organ player?

Well that was easy! (Lovely performance, by the way, well worth hearing. They're all on top form -- Leonhardt, the two recorder players, René Jacobs, Max van Ergmond . .. Thanks.)

His records came with a large poster that teenagers could hang in their bedrooms.

All I can think of now is that when he holds the recorder to his mouth, it's slightly phallic!

 

I liked Bruggen's way with everything including Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach cantatas. I never feared buying one of his recordings and usually found them moderately to greatly enjoyable and rewarding in a clean up the old photos kind of way. He quite often stripped away a veneer and exposed something beneath.

Yet to hear his "legacy" I'd say listen to his Schubert symphonies. If you think Schubert was a beer drinking, knee slapping genial kind of guy these recordings might horrify you. They are strict, unsentimental and highly periodized with vibrato-less strings. Yet they work in their own way -- a way that rejects Beecham, Furtwangler, Bohm and all the other great Schubert interpreters that arrived prior to period performance. This is what people liked about Bruggen.

 

I like(d) his Schubert, too.
But I would not limit myself to this composer when talking about Brüggen's legacy.

(Btw: I liked Van Immerseel's Schubert even better, but that's besides the topic.)

 

I have heard only a selection but Brüggen's is probably the darkest and slowest "Unfinished" among the original instrument performances.

 

I’m spending a disgustingly dank, dark, London October afternoon listening to this, I think his second Matty Passion - it’s strikes me as introspective, prayerful. Evangelist is distinctively humble. We’re not in the vibe of dramatic oratorio. In fact all the singers are pretty modest. But that may be all to the good. Like it so far.