Bach: Violin Concertos

Janine Jansen’ s Bach concertos collection, for which the Dutch violist is joined by friends and family (father Jan on harpsichord and brother Maarten on cello), is more idiosyncratic than you might expect. The D minor Double Violin Concerto is given in a C minor reconstruction for violin and oboe (no fair substitute for the original, in my view), and two of the works aren’t concertos at all, but sonatas for harpsichord and violin (BWV1016 in E, and BWV1017 in C minor). The playing of the Violin Concertos in A minor and E is pliant and light, with an attractive air of spontaneity in the solo playing, and an overall feeling of attractive chamber-music-style give-and-take. The sonatas are marred by a recorded balance, which presents a pygmy harpsichord behind a giant violin. url.ie/4w4k