JS Bach Oboe Concertos, BWV 1053, 1055, 1056; Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1060* etc Lorenzo Cavasanti (recorder), *Liana Mosca (violin); Cantica Symphonia/Giuseppe Maletto Glossa GCDP31910 61:57 mins
Lorenzo Cavasanti takes a pragmatic view of these concertos, as did Bach. Three of them have been preserved in versions for harpsichord and strings, while the fourth survives as a work for two harpsichords and strings. These are Bach’s reworkings of pieces originally for violin or woodwind instruments. The purpose was to provide music for himself and other keyboard players to perform with the collegium musicum which he directed at Leipzig.
Cavasanti plays different sizes of recorder, and the results are mainly convincing. One of the concertos, BWV 1056, has been allotted to the violin, the instrument for which, in all probability, Bach had foremost in mind. Liana Mosca gives a sensitive performance with a lyrical account of the poetic Largo. She is joined by Cavasanti in the double concerto, better known in its version for oboe and violin. The two short remaining pieces are drawn from Bach’s Cantatas, BWV 76 and BWV 182. The former has undergone readjustment to accommodate recorder and viola, as opposed to the original oboe d’amore and viola da gamba; the latter, for recorder, two violins and two violas stands as Bach wrote it. Cantica Symphonia under Giuseppe Maletto provides sympathetic support.
Nicholas Anderson