Bach: Violin Concerto, BWV 1041; Violin Concerto, BWV 1042; Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043; Partita No. 2, BWV 1004

COMPOSERS: Bach
LABELS: Philips Solo
WORKS: Violin Concerto, BWV 1041; Violin Concerto, BWV 1042; Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043; Partita No. 2, BWV 1004
PERFORMER: Gidon Kremer (violin) Academy of St Martin in the Fields
CATALOGUE NO: 454 128-2 (1980/4)

Kremer shows little interest here in exploring Bach’s idiomatic sound-world. Instead of the graceful flow and piquancy of Baroque music, he offers abrasive, driving, heavy-handed readings, played on modern instruments and shaped by modern sensibilities. Kremer plays both parts in the Double Violin Concerto, much to the detriment of the music’s essential spirit of responsive dialogue. He also makes the celebrated Chaconne from the D minor Partita sound like a tortuous technical exercise. A recording better forgotten than reissued. Graham Lock