Bach’s Violin and Harpsichord Sonatas hardly suffer from a lack of fine recordings. Yet these absorbing performances stand out for their intellectual and emotional vigor, polyphonic clarity, and brilliantly detailed engineering. What’s more, the harpsichord’s bass lines register with rare cogency. The faster movements are unusually playful and flow with heart-stopping drama. There’s one fly in this potent ointment, though: Rachel Podger’s reedy, colorless tone. We miss, for instance, the subtle shadings other baroque fiddlers bring to the steady, sustained two-note chords in the F minor sonata’s Adagio (taken at a faster than usual clip here). Or compare Podger’s raspy arpeggios at the climax of the A major Sonata’s second movement to suppler players like Andrew Manze and Fabio Biondi. Yet Podger and Pinnock’s compelling interpretations make these works come alive in new ways. If you respond to Podger’s tone with a more welcoming ear than mine, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this set. If only the competition weren’t so fierce…
