Salvatore Accardo, Chamber Orchestra of Europe - J.S. Bach: Violin Concertos, Double Concerto (2000)

If you’re approaching these familiar Bach concertos for the first time, or want inexpensive performances that still provide decent musical rewards, then you won’t go far wrong with this Eloquence disc. Salvatore Accardo (who also directs the Chamber Orchestra of Europe) is soloist in the violin concertos in A minor and E major. Both are earnest, direct readings that hardly differ from Accardo’s EMI remakes. Only the slow movements might seem a little over-indulgent even though there’s a high degree of stylistic purity here. Accardo shows high consistency over ornamentation, and although he employs vibrato routinely, its nicely restrained and modulated. Outer movements are taken at brisk tempos throughout. Accardo’s EMI disc featured Anne-Sophie Mutter as collaborator in the “double” concerto; here, he’s partnered by Margaret Batjer, a no-less-competent fiddler in this work, but the outcome seems both more circumspect and measured, and arguably more closely attuned to what we routinely term “authentic” Bach. If “authentic” isn’t so important, don’t overlook that famous and fascinating DG performance of the “double” from the Oistrakhs, father and son; it still sounds powerful and strangely modern despite its years! Lastly, oboist Douglas Boyd joins Accardo for the violin and oboe concerto–again a pleasing and natural performance, sounding fresh and alive in this recent Philips transfer.