Bach Generations CPE Bach: Concerto in G, Wq. 9; JS Bach: Oboe d’amore Concerto in A, BWV 1055 etc; JCF Bach: Oboe Concerto in B flat; plus works by JC Bach and Stölzel Albrecht Mayer (oboe, oboe d’amore, cor anglais); Berliner Barock Solisten DG 486 4183 80:43 mins
Of the making of attractive Bach transcriptions there is no end, and here that fine oboist, Albrecht Mayer, extends the quest to members of the family before and after JS Bach. Rather than pieces Johann Sebastian Bach actually wrote for oboe, we have greatest-hits arrangements: the ‘Air’ from the Third Suite and the ‘Badinerie’ from the Second (though there was once an idea that this Suite had a lost oboe original), as well as the aria ‘Bist du bei mir’, now known to be by Stölzel so hardly relevant here. There is a strong account of the A major Concerto for oboe d’amore, the supposed original of Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto, BWV 1055, memorably recorded by Heinz Holliger and others.
Two excellent new inventions make the recording worthwhile. One is a bustling, lively concerto in B flat by Bach’s son Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-95), which I am sure I used to know (in A) as a keyboard concerto by his brother Johann Christian. The other is a touching Lamento by the respected early family member Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703), whose vocal original has been recorded under Reinhard Goebel on Archiv; it is here played on the cor anglais. Mayer cultivates a rich and sumptuous sound, sustaining long lines which are beautifully rounded but perhaps not to all tastes these days: there is little space to breathe. His band is the taut and lithe Berlin Baroque Soloists, excellently led by Gottfried von der Goltz.
Nicholas Kenyon