Dear Musical buddies, and especially buddies who listen to recordings (you know who you are):

I am incredibly slowly expanding my CD collection by replacing older recordings of early music with HIP recordings, and am now at the point where I want to get a more hip version of Bach's Brandenburg concertos. I am beginning to realize that (*) the recording I like might not coincide with (*) the most authentic recording. Therefore I would like to have your opinions about various HIP Brandenburg recordings, with notes about instrumentation, tempo & attack, quality of soloists, editorial changes (e.g. Thurston Dart's brief version of the 5th for ASMITF), recording quality, etc. IF there is an FAQ file of this somewhere, point me to it. In particular, I would like information about the recordings by Harnoncourt, Koopman, Pinnock, Hogwood, Le Petit Bande (sic.), Pailliard Ensemble, M. Perlman (sic.)(Boston Baroque?), and Taffelmusik (sic.). Thanks in advance, and apologies if I do not remember to acknowledge your suggestions. If desired, I will compile a composite review and post that, if everyone would prefer to mail me their responses direct.

Remember, if you would simply like to nominate your favorite performance, give us an example of the kind of thing you like, so that we can infer what qualities your nominee has to endear it to you paticularly.