Transcription played such a vital role in the genesis of Bach's instrumental music that it is no wonder modern scholars and performers so often attempt the reconstruction of lost originals (and even their own transcriptions of original works) in a manner analogous to the master's. Accordingly, in the six recordings under review we encounter Dot only original works and Bach's own transcriptions (the harpsichord concertos BWV1044, 1052 and 1054 and the gamba sonata BWV1027), but also modern reconstructions (the oboe concertos BWV1053a and 1059a and the three-violin concerto BWV1064R) and modern transcriptions (the fifth cello suite for viola da gamba and all six cello suites for lute).
J. S. Bach: Concerti pour clavecin is performed by Pierre Hantai and Le Concert Francais (Astree E8523, rec 1993) in a remarkably lively, rhythmically taut style, precisely articulated with crystal-clear textures, ideal balance and just enough rubato and ornamentation. The A minor concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord (coupled with the D minor and D major harpsichord concertos, the latter a transcription of the E major violin concerto) emerges here as one of Bach's finest concertos, fully comparable with the fifth Brandenburg, whose instrumentation it shares. Its relative neglect is perhaps due in part to the old prejudice against transcriptions (the concerto is based on a grand and powerful prelude and fugue from the Weimar years, BWV894, plus the slow movement of the D minor organ trio sonata) and in part to the subordinate role of the flute and violin, which prevents it from being a true triple concerto. Gilles Cantagrel, in his accompanying note, espouses the long-discredited notion that the transcription was the work of one of Bach's last pupils, J. G. Muthel. Muthel certainly Owned one of the chief sources, but the other is in Agricola's hand; the two are independent of one another and both unambiguously name J. S. Bach as author. The work is, in fact, perhaps the most astonishing of all surviving examples of Bach's staggeringly skilful art of transcription.
The same concerto has been recorded by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed by Elizabeth Wallfisch on J....