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 famous 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? The illustration is of, I suppose, the scrolls of the seven string instruments played? Definitely worth adding to your Bach concertos collections. Peter Grahame Woolf |