Bach: Concertos for Two Harpsichords (2014)

This is an enjoyable, somehow spontaneous recording of several of Bach's works for a pair of harpsichords, with the great Japanese Bach conductor Masaaki Suzuki joined by his son Masato. The high spirits of the elder Suzuki here could be chalked up to any combination of several factors. One might be freedom from the rigors of his complete Bach cantata cycle, just recently completed when this album appeared in 2014. Another could be the unusual chance for Suzuki to show his considerable powers as a keyboardist, or again the ... Read More

This is an enjoyable, somehow spontaneous recording of several of Bach's works for a pair of harpsichords, with the great Japanese Bach conductor Masaaki Suzuki joined by his son Masato. The high spirits of the elder Suzuki here could be chalked up to any combination of several factors. One might be freedom from the rigors of his complete Bach cantata cycle, just recently completed when this album appeared in 2014. Another could be the unusual chance for Suzuki to show his considerable powers as a keyboardist, or again the presence of a family member generating an especially relaxed performance. In any event, although the music-making with the two Suzukis and a quintet of strings from Masaaki Suzuki's Bach Collegium Japan is basically the same precise species as was heard in the cantata recordings, there's a new inventive spirit evident in, among other things, the arrangement for two harpsichords of the Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066, by Masaaki Suzuki himself. The model for the... Read Less