Years ago as a young piano student I had a book of keyboard pieces (actually I still have it) aptly titled The Joy of Bach. Here is a recording that could justly bear that same title. Violinist Rachel Podger, who already has impressed with an earlier recording of Bach solo concertos with her Brecon Baroque colleagues (read review here) follows with four works for two and three “lead” players, accompanied by a one-to-a-part ripieno. As Podger points out in the informative liner notes, this set-up actually creates a situation where all the players are “concerto-ing”, not just the conventional soloists.
This is especially notable–and obvious–in the singularly elegant, graceful slow movement of the famous “double” concerto, where we hear each instrumental line as a distinct and eloquent participant in the conversation. The fission and fusion, the coincidental me-first assertiveness and power-sharing camaraderie of the solo instruments in the concluding Allegro, are successfully, excitingly conveyed, not by finesse alone, nor by simply imposing on the music an extreme tempo (the refuge of all too many lesser performers of this concerto), but by a careful, hands-on, group-aware control of the conflagration. This is one of those turn-up-the-volume moments that don’t often come along in Bach (outside some of the organ works, or, for instance, the opening chorus of Klemperer’s St. Matthew Passion recording).
The program’s other works follow in the same manner, the period string instruments–most of them originals or modern copies of 18th-century models–producing a rich, vibrant ensemble timbre, and the performers–some of the world’s finest Baroque specialists–embracing, owning, and, yes, selling this music as if it were today’s latest big thing, brought to us with the same meticulous attention to sound that Channel Classics has maintained since its founding in 1990. Podger, Brecon Baroque, and Channel Classics don’t give us anything earth-shaking or ground-breaking here; that’s not the point. This is simply terrific period-music performance for modern ears that promises nothing less than a solid hour of pleasurable listening–truly the Joy of Bach.
