It was 1987. A young harpsichordist, a thirty-one year old from Göttingen, Germany, dazzled the musical world with his brilliant version of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, recorded by Reinhard Goebel and the musicians of the Musica Antiqua Köln, for Archiv Produktion. Since then, Andreas Staier has often returned to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has succeeded at everything that he has tried; including Partitas, the Italian Concerto, the French Overture, Fantaisies - a piece attached to his youth (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 1988, 1993), the simply inexhaustible Goldberg Variations (harmonia mundi), through to his amazing recital – never to be forgotten – of the Sonatas (1997). Now, he is publishing a recording of the seven Concertos for (one) keyboard. In total harmony with his co-conspirators at the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Staier offers classical lovers releases like no other. He moves away from the light spirit of "entertainment" in Telemann – the historical founder of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig - for whom these concert works were originally executed. For Staier, these concertos betray an expressive depth, a contrapuntal density, which is incomparably sonorous. Listen, for example, to the Adagio in D minor. Here, the low rumble is tinged with tension and anxiety, under the cover of a singing lyricism. The addition in the last movement of the concerto, even in a relatively tortured cadence, is reminiscent of the young Bach (who was himself influenced by the "stylus phantasticus", or tempos retained, of E major, which goes on to reveal its full melancholic tone). For Staier, these stunning pieces are all authentic mini-dramas. We have long awaited such daring and original releases. © Qobuz