Bach - Violin Concertos - Bernardini/Dunedin Consort/Butt

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent Bach

I like this recording very much.  These concertos have been recorded so often and by so many very fine violinists that another may seem an irrelevance, but this stands with the best, I think.

The programme consists of the two concertos that Bach actually left as solo violin concertos (BWV1041 and 1042), the famous double violin concerto BWV1043 and the concerto for violin and oboe BWV1060.  They are all brilliant works (which explains why they have been recorded so often, of course) which are full of Bach's wonderful melodies, emotion and essential pulse – and the slow movement of BWV1043 is simply sublime as the two violin parts twine around each other.  There is also a lovely little Sinfonia from Cantata 21 for violin and oboe.

Cecilia Bernardini plays beautifully.  Her tone is lovely throughout and she really brings out the meaning in these pieces without ever overlaying Bach's music with over-emphatic or sentimental gestures.  Her two solo partners are her father Alfredo Bernardini playing the oboe and violinist Huw Daniel , both of whom are excellent, as is the Dunedin Consort.  They are a chamber-sized ensemble here of four violins, viola, cello and violone with John Butt directing from the harpsichord.  They are ideal here – supple and empathetic, with some genuine welly when needed and aas a whole this sounds to me just as Bach should.

This won't supplant my dearly loved versions by Andrew Manze, Rachel Podger, Alina Ibragimova and others, but it's alongside them and I'll be playing this just as often, I think.  It's excellently played, superbly recorded and has very good accompanying notes, so I can recommend this in the warmest terms.