J.s. Bach Violin Concertos

If you’re approaching these familiar Bach concertos for the first time, or want inexpensive performances that still provide decent musical rewards, then you won’t go far wrong with this Eloquence disc. Salvatore Accardo (who also directs the Chamber Orchestra of Europe) is soloist in the violin concertos in A minor and E major. Both are earnest, direct readings that hardly differ from Accardo’s EMI remakes.

Although not quite as well known as some of his other works, Bach's violin concertos contain some of the most beautiful music ever composed. While there are many performances of these concertos available, including some recent releases, the classic performances offered here, featuring the great Arthur Grumiaux on violin (and the great Hermann Krebbers on the double violin concerto), are far and away my favorites. I cannot recommend this disc more highly.

This disc has a lot going for it. Thomas Zehetmair is a world-renowned violinist; the Amsterdam Bach Soloists comprise a little over a dozen players from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra; and while they perform on modern instruments, they adhere largely to historically informed performance practice. Thus, we get the best of all worlds: world-class playing; smooth, mellifluous sound; and convincing interpretations.

As many readers know, although Bach composed a number of violin concertos (and for other melody instruments), mostly during his years in Coethen (approximately 1717-1723), with respect to violin concertos, only the three represented here remain in their original form (Violin Concerto in A minor, BMV 1041; Violin Concerto in E major, BMV 1042; and the Double Violin Concerto in D Minor, BMV 1043). (The concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord in A minor, BMV 1044, not included here, also remains in its original form).

It’s hard to imagine performances of Bach’s violin concertos like those of Nigel Kennedy or, now, these by Daniel Hope, passing muster two generations ago. But since then, Bach’s model, Vivaldi, has enjoyed a second rebirth through the midwifery of period instrumentalists who have sped up the tempos of his fast movements and shone light through the ingeniously transparent textures of his slow ones, all the while employing a wider range of colors than hitherto imagined.

Recordings of Bach's violin concertos are not in short supply, but this one, nicely recorded at a small hall in the home city of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, is unusually satisfying. It does not exactly break new ground, but it improves on several existing ideas and puts them together into a nifty package. First of all is the program itself. The Freiburgers and their leader/violinists, Petra Müllejans and Gottfried von der Goltz (joined here by Anna-Katharina Schreiber), offer by way of conclusion the Concerto for three violins and orchestra, BWV 1064R, a lost work reconstructed from a later version for harpsichord.

Akiko Suwanai (born in 1972) is one of the brightest violinists to have emerged in the late 20th century, winning the Tchaikovsky International Competition, the youngest person to do so, in 1990. She has gone on to an impressive concert and recording career that encompasses both traditional repertoire and world premieres. Her 2006 album J.S. Bach: Violin Concertos was an instant success. Her performance is impressive: incisive, nuanced, and idiomatic. Her tone has an appealing warmth, but she remains true to the character of the music and doesn't lapse into Romantic tone quality or interpretations.

This release of Bach's well-explored violin concertos (plus a couple of arranged keyboard concertos) by Italian violinist Giuliano Carmignola delivers truth in advertising on its back cover: the violinist, playing a 1739 Guidantus and leading the historical-instrument ensemble Concerto Köln, "seems to cast fresh light on these much-loved masterpieces by imbuing them with all the joyfulness of his Venetian sound."