Album: Bach, Keyboard Concertos – Tharaud/Labadie/Les Violons du Roy (VIRGIN CLASSICS)

Les Violons make an interesting contrastto Alexandre Tharaud’s 1980s grand piano in this hybrid reading of Bach’s keyboard concertos. Bernard Labadie’sgut strings are all sharp exhalations,while Tharaud favours the cool balm ofthe sustaining pedal. His multitrackedperformance of the Concerto for FourKeyboards is a novelty too far. Despitethis, it’s an attractive, spirited challengeto both the HIP (historically informedperformance) and modern-instrumentsstylistic norms.