Pentatone’s remastered reissue of Heinz Holliger’s baroque concerto program, a mid-1970s LP staple on Philips, will be welcomed back by all but the most diehard period-instrument enthusiasts. It features a pair of gorgeous J.S. Bach cantata Sinfonias and concertos of C.P.E. Bach and Vivaldi. While Holliger, the English Chamber Orchestra, and I Musici play modern instruments, I rarely felt the ponderous gait that our 21st-century ears now associate with 25-year-old performances of Baroque music. Holliger went on to play and conduct modern music, to which his slightly acidic, narrow oboe timbre now seems more suited. His pointed tone is miles from the sound of the Baroque oboe or even the traditional beefy tone of central European oboe players. But, as the current saying has it, “it is what it is,” and if you like it or can listen through it, you’ll treasure these performances.
Actually, Holliger’s timbre suits his performances of outer movements in the concertos, allowing a fluid, up-tempo ease that’s often exciting. Also on the plus side is his virtuosity, demonstrated in the effortless scaling of his instrument’s highest register in C.P.E. Bach’s B-flat concerto and in his zippy race through the first movement of Vivaldi’s Op. 7 No. 7. Even the slow movements, despite my quibbles over timbre, are affecting, especially in the wistful Largo of the above-mentioned Vivaldi work and the soulful slow movements of the C.P.E. Bach concertos.
Raymond Leppard and the English Chamber Orchestra provide good support in the pieces by the Bach father and son, but I Musici is a more vibrant partner in the Vivaldi concertos, their ensemble tighter and their rhythms more lively. This hybrid multichannel disc, heard on a two-channel system, lends the Vivaldi works greater presence and puts more body on Holliger’s tone. But the Bach tracks are more than acceptable, though the harpsichord continuo in C.P.E.’s B-flat concerto is backwardly placed, almost swamped by the strings. Despite these carpings, this is a highly recommendable disc full of well-played, top-drawer music.
