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Concertos Daniel Pailthorpe provides some arrangements, and in his note claims that these works were all originally chamber music and are well suited to one-to-a-part performance, here on modern instruments but with "the best of period instrument practice with purity of tone and economy of vibrato". That takes me back to c.1950, when as a student I organised and directed a one-to-a-part chamber concert including Bach's Suite No. 2 for flute and strings, at a time when large string forces were the norm and we didn't know about non-vibrato ! Do the Conchords play without a conductor, so it seems? The greatly admired Florian Uhlig is stylish in Brandenburg No 5 "the first ever keyboard concerto", and he provides discreet accompaniment at the piano to arrangements of Sheep may safely graze and Jesu, joy of Man's desiring, which became faous in my youth as Myra Hess's 'signature tune'. The whole collection is recorded in fine sound in the intimate venue of Champs Hill, where they are ensemble-in-residence and will give pleasure to a range of baroque music enthusasts, including, I hope, some HIP purists? Definitely worth adding to your Bach concertos collections. Champs Hill Records CHRCD031 This is less recommendable because of the two sonatas being accompanied on a modern piano; dull and nowadays sounding frankly anachronistic. The documentation and presentation are good, and if you want your Bach traditional, you'd do better to settle for the concertos reviewed above. Peter Grahame Woolf |
