The reconstruction then ends with a few liturgical nuts and bolts and a final chorale for the congregation. Bach mediates between the French and the Italian styles in the course of the six works, and Levit doesn’t miss a trick. Chorales are shaped with care and expressive sensitivity, but also never overcooked. Everything is delightfully devoid of pedantry or over­emphasis; few pianists have worn their enviable expertise in Bach more lightly. Fittingly, there is a long silence before the limpid Gavotte. Not exactly being a fan of Philip Glass’s music, this is the first time I’ve encountered Víkingur Ólafsson on disc, though I was very taken with his Bach in concert last year. Such is Layton’s overall grip and understanding of the generic dramatic properties of the St John – especially in controlling tension and release – that we have here a perfect balance for the greater spontaneity of John Butt’s touchingly inhabited and personal journey. Lindsay Kemp (April 2017). This is particularly striking in the potentially murky, homogeneous textures of Nos 3 and 6; but the other, more colourfully scored concertos are just as lucidly done – a triumph of the balancer’s art, obviously, but surely just as much a result of clear-headed thinking on the part of the performers. Butt and the Dunedins might not change any entrenched minds; but the climax of “Gratias agimus tibi” is as bold, resonant and glorious as anything one would expect (and not always get) from larger forces. And it all flows effortlessly – though I’m sure the journey has been anything but that. Inexorable momentum here is born of fervent authority, a virtuosity of combined effects without gratuitous excess. Leaving aside the most famous organ work of all, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (which some doubt is by Bach at all), one of the most brilliant works is his Fantasia and Fugue In G Minor. “Ach, bleibe doch, mein liebstes Leben” (Bach’s model for the Agnus Dei of the B minor Mass) has wondrous unison playing from the first violins and sweet eloquence from Iestyn Davies; the accompaniment of flutes, oboe and upper strings for Sampson’s singing in “Jesu, deine Gnadenblicke” is also interpreted perfectly. Above all, they are fresh and joyous. This is a hugely enjoyable celebration of Bach – himself a violinist – which conjures not so much the strict contrapuntal and formal genius as the joyous spirit of the living man. flag. Is offering the English Suites on the piano and the Partitas on the harpsichord a commendably broad-church approach or just haphazard? Gardiner asks for a lot of quiet singing from them and they execute it with superbly controlled beauty. Equally effective is the ‘E Major Partita’, which dances in with an irrepressible spirit that is rarely threatened during the remaining movements. I agree, but I think you have it bachwards. This reappraisal of the St Matthew (the earlier version from 1999 does appear studied and self-conscious in comparison, for all its estimable virtues) takes us on a journey which will continually enthral, move and surprise. Many Baroque composers wrote dozens, or even hundreds, of concertos but Bach managed to sum up the entire genre with only six, each featuring a different line-up of soloists with a wide range of moods and even structures (shocking in an era when concertos were supposed to have three movements: fast-slow-fast). Lindsay Kemp (February 2001). William Yeoman (January 2011). 2 and 3 – almost to abstraction. Not the music of those hapless composers unlucky enough to exist solely to make a Bach possible. Alongside the concerto, the other genre in vogue in Bach’s time was the orchestral suite (or “overture” as he called it). The close, with its ingeniously compressed lines and the composer’s outrageous sign-off, literally spelling his name (B is B flat and H is B natural), is celebrated in some style by Suzuki. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (November 2015), Jaime Martin fl Kenneth Sillitoe vn Jakob Lindberg theorbo ASMF / Murray Perahia. Butt’s flowing tempo for “Agnus Dei” prevents Margot Oitzinger from conveying the breathtaking timelessness some might hanker after but catharsis is tangible in “Benedictus” (performed movingly by Hobbs and flautist Katy Bircher). Richter’s captivating direction and intensity, complete with an almost hypnotic abandon, is a touch more measured in Suzuki’s hands but no less effectively communicated. Presented as a grand work with a single-voice chorus, this reading of the Magnificat is as vitally conceived and multi-dimensional as I can recall. 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