Bach’s keyboard concertos, despite their obscure provenance (all are thought to be arrangements of earlier instrumental concerti), stand tall as the earliest masterpieces of the genre, brimful of contrapuntal invention. As such they offer endless possibilities for imaginative interpreters, yet performances and recordings played on harpsichord are not as common as you might suppose in the era of historically-informed performance practice, and are well outnumbered by those on modern piano.

To overcome the problem of balancing the harpsichord against the standard Baroque string ensemble, the current fashion is to play them one-to-a-part, as recorded here by London’s critically acclaimed Retrospect Ensemble with their inspired young leader Matthew Halls. He plays a superb instrument with a robust yet refined tone and inflects the solo part with illuminating details, crisp rhythmic articulation and clever yet tasteful ornamentation.

The ensemble perform with a clean transparent sound and fine intonation but are a times a little restrained and polite – this certainly allows the soloist to be heard to good advantage but doesn’t always reach the ideal of “a first among equals” – the players seem reluctant make the bold dramatic gestures one hears from their leader. Their short-breathed phrasing and avoidance of expressive vibrato casts an austere pall over the slow movements, although sometimes this pays off – that of BWV1058 is given the emotional gravitas of the violin original. Tempi are sensible and relaxed, which does give time for details to register but not always to good advantage – as when the third movement fugue of BWV1057 at one point threatens to lose impetus – and many movements could go with more of a swing.

While the ensemble’s approach lacks sensuality it does lay bare the architectural rigour of Bach’s structures and cogency of his arguments; I just wish they would let go and dance a little. Linn’s superbly natural SACD production backed up with comprehensive program notes makes a satisfying package.

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