59.00 PLN

2 CD:

Nr kat.: RRC2084
Label  : Regis Records

DeLuxe Edition

Having heard Ivor Bolton and the St James's Baroque Players endangering the land-speed record for BWV1053 in the course of this year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, I feared that youth might again be having its fling on this recording. In fact it does—not in that way but in the crisp, clear-sighted approach to the music, all of which proceeds at a proper tempo and, where appropriate, with a spring in its heels. The slow movements are sensitively expressive and never ponderous. In a concert performance the harpsichordist has to compete on equal terms with the orchestra, rarely coming out on top, and in non-solo passages may be all but swamped; as this is basically how such works would have been heard in their own time, you may feel this is the way it should be. In a recording the harpsichord can be given a forward balance, but it may then be too audible when its role is subsidiary, a situation which is closely approached—but not, I feel, quite reached in this case; it 'keeps its distance' and doesn't sound too close-miked. I, for one, like to hear what Bach wrote, without having to adjust my ear-trumpet, and as Bolton plays it I'm happy to do so. There is no other collation of these concertos on CD, nor is there any other version of BWV1057 (derived from the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto) listed, even on LP. The strings are 'authentic' and respectful of every element of style, but their players remain anonymous, as do also the recorder players in BWV1057. I thoroughly enjoyed this disc and was relieved to find that the superb recording was not made in the capricious acoustic of the Players' own church. From the booklet we learn of a group of concertos by Vivaldi: ''L'Estro Harmonico'' (sic)—for the mouth-organ?'