J. S. Bach – Keyboard Concertos

Rob Cowan

7th February 2005 The idea of “trick” recording goes back to the days of 78s when Elisabeth Schumann sang in duet with herself and Heifetz played both parts of Bach’s “Double” Concerto. Latest to appear along parallel lines is a recording of Bach’s Concerto for three keyboards in D minor (4-stars Warner 2564 61950-2), where one of the pianist-sisters Gûher and Sûher Pekinel provides an “over-dub” of the third piano part. You’d never guess from the evidence – and like the concertos for two keyboards in C minor and C major, the performance is light on its feet. I’m not sure about the excessive decorations in the slow movement of the first C minor work (a two-piano version of the popular Double Violin Concerto), but the Triple is the ultimate in cool Bach – very Glenn Gould – while the Zûrcher Kammerorchester under Howard Griffiths fits the mood and style to perfection Two discs of piano trios are of interest, the first coupling Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque in D minor (4-stars Warner 2564 61937-2) together with Shostakovich’s great E minor Trio. In the Rachmaninov, Boris Berezovsky’s piano commands a Horowitzian dynamic range, especially in the first movement.