Unlike so many Baroque compilation albums that rely so heavily on only a handful of compositions (particularly the Brandenburg Concertos), Berlin Classics Beautiful Baroque actually does listeners a favor by including a fair variety of composers and a decent spectrum of compositions. The downside is that none of the performances are truly spectacular or engaging. If the goal of such a compilation album is to enchant listeners and create interest and enthusiasm for the genre being sampled, then this album definitely misses ...
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Unlike so many Baroque compilation albums that rely so heavily on only a handful of compositions (particularly the Brandenburg Concertos), Berlin Classics Beautiful Baroque actually does listeners a favor by including a fair variety of composers and a decent spectrum of compositions. The downside is that none of the performances are truly spectacular or engaging. If the goal of such a compilation album is to enchant listeners and create interest and enthusiasm for the genre being sampled, then this album definitely misses the mark. The most notable tracks are the movements performed by father and son violin duo David and Igor Oistrakh, but these are more significant from an interesting historical perspective and not so much for their superlative performance qualities. The remainder of the tracks are all adequately performed, but without anything special to distinguish themselves from any other performances. Sound quality varies greatly from track to track, with some being problematically muddy....
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