There’s no denying Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach credentials, but despite plenty of virtuosity and enthusiasm, these performances are let down by two factors. The first of these concerns Suzuki’s use of rubato, which lends the tutti sections of the Italian Concerto a stop-and-start quality that quickly becomes tiresome. It also compromises some of the opportunities for contrast between the “orchestral” and “solo” episodes, despite an instrument with aptly differentiated stops. Indeed, the slow movement is quite lovely, with its delicate, lute-like timbre. Suzuki’s approach works better in the French Overture, the opening movement of which has a rhetorical grandeur that can take Suzuki’s inflections of phrase better than the concerto. Once again the slower music (the Sarabande in particular) has plenty of grace and an affecting lyricism, while the more muscular pieces generally find Suzuki responding in kind.
However, the second drawback is the harpsichord’s sound. Soft bits aside, this double-manual instrument has an aggressively steely and dry tone that, combined with the high-level recording, easily might become aurally fatiguing after a few minutes. Certainly it renders true legato playing all but impossible. It may be that Suzuki’s phrasing is designed to counteract to some extent this harsh, even mechanical timbre, but if so why choose this instrument in the first place? These inherent limitations in terms of responsiveness to touch mean that choosing the right instrument is critical, especially in a recording situation where sonic peculiarities tend to be magnified. It’s a shame, really, not just because these two works naturally belong together, but also because Suzuki has found a very attractive and interesting coupling in the form of a keyboard arrangement (by Bach or one of his students) of the Solo Violin Sonata in A minor. So despite respectable musicianship, this disc remains something of a chore to get through, and Bach should never be that.
