COMPOSERS: JS Bach
LABELS: Gaudeamus
ALBUM TITLE: JS Bach
WORKS: Violin Concerto in D minor (reconstructed from MWV 1052);Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056; Violin Concerto in E, BWV 1042; Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041
PERFORMER: Monica Huggett (violin); Sonnerie
CATALOGUE NO: CD GAU 356
Only two of the four violin concertos
included in Sonnerie’s new disc have
been handed down in their original
form, those in A minor (BWV
1041) and E major (BWV 1042).
There were, though, a great many
more, some of which have survived
in Bach’s own later arrangements
for solo harpsichord(s) and strings,
as indeed is the case with the two
works already mentioned. For
the remaining concertos in her
programme soloist and director
Monica Huggett has chosen
reconstructions of the Harpsichord
Concertos in D minor (BWV 1052),
and G minor (BWV 1056).
This is Huggett’s second
recording of the A minor and E
major Concertos, the earlier one
with the Amsterdam Baroque
Orchestra directed by Ton Koopman
dating back to the mid-1980s.
More recently, there have been rival
versions of these works, along with
others forming different programme
configurations, by Elizabeth
Wallfisch (Virgin Classics), Simon
Standage (Chandos) and Andrew
Manze (Harmonia Mundi).
However, the new issue is the only
one of these not to include the most famous concerto of them all, in D
minor (BWV 1043) for two violins.
Huggett’s violin playing is
characteristically light of tread and
tasteful in matters of embellishment;
and her small ensemble of supporting
players is sympathetic and crisply
responsive to her leadership. Yet not
all goes quite as well as it should
with patches of roughly tuned tutti
playing, especially noticeable in
the opening allegro of the D minor
Concerto. Elizabeth Wallfisch, in
her version with the Orchestra of
the Age of Enlightenment, is more
convincing in this respect, though
her slightly slower tempo and larger
ripieno makes less appeal than
Huggett’s more dance-oriented
approach. Even so, she lacks the
lyricism of Standage and the fantasy
of Manze in the slow movements of
the A minor and E major pieces. A
difficult choice. Nicholas Anderson