I reviewed Jean Rondeau’s CD of Bach family concerti last year, and found it to be a bit of a mixed bag due to some seemingly intentionally peculiar phrasing. It mostly worked, but at times seemed deliberately bizarre.

On this new release, he’s playing Scarlatti. Once again, there’s odd things happening here, and I’m not terribly sure who at Erato is letting Rondeau do these. There’s an interlude at track nine (complete with recommendation to pause the disc at that point) which seems to be an atonal improvisation. Granted, it’s only 30 seconds and I like the idea of something to break up the stream of Scarlatti, but this comes across as more eyebrow-raising than...