Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Freiburger Barockorchester (2000)


The Freiburger Barockorchester plays Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major (BWV 1047). This concerto is the source of the theme music for William F. Buckley's Firing Line - it appears around 8:53, in the allegro assai movement.

For a long time, I thought that opening harpsichord of the allegro assai was merely a pretentious companion to Buckley's own plummy voice, an indicator of elite credentials, a kind of sophisticated muzak. Of course, I was wrong. Buckley loved Bach; a 1978 episode of Firing Line featured Bach champion Rosalyn Tureck, complete with harpsichord. A 1992 article in the New York Times quoted one of Buckley's former teachers describing "the devotion to Bach Mr. Buckley is willing to share with his listeners." Buckley himself said that "I hoped to be [a professional musician] up until about the age of 15 when I was precocious enough to recognize that I didn't have the talent to become one." 


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