Bach-Centricity: Concertos, Trios & Sonatas in Bloomington, MN

Bach
was a frequent recycler of his own and others' music as the occasion demanded, and arrangements of his works for two harpsichords aren't much of a stretch. True, the two-keyboard combination isn't common, and the few keyboard duos in his output, none included here, were for two organs. The program presented here probably isn't one
would have played himself. Nevertheless, it works, and one reason is that harpsichordists
David Ponsford
and
David Hill
("the two Davids") mix
's own music with his transcriptions of works by other composers, namely
Vivaldi
,
Prince Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar
Johann Friedrich Fasch
, and in one brief case,
François Couperin
. (All the works are authentic
in that they are included in the BWV listing of
's works.) The effect is to give a little window into how
incorporated other styles, most notably the bright extroversion of
, into his own gnarly North German contrapuntal orientation. Everything comes together in the
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051
, where the
an antiphony is merged into
ian density. The two Davids capture that thread of antiphony, which runs through many of the pieces on the album, and they have a lively sense of exchange themselves, the key to any successful duo album; the pair have been playing together for several years. Finally, although the recording venue is given only as Alvescot, Oxfordshire, the engineering is a pleasure, capturing the interior quality of the program and letting the brilliance of the
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6
outer movements emerge. Not exactly a historical performance despite the harpsichords, this is an enjoyable outing for
lovers. ~ James Manheim