Album: Heinz Holliger, JS Bach: Konzerte und Sinfonien Für Oboe (ECM New Series)

J S Bach used the oboe to originally voice many of the most famous instrumental passages in his cantatas and orchestral works, but these origins were all too often obscured by his later revisions of these pieces for other instruments – a process reversed here by Heinz Holliger in a pair of exquisite oboe Sinfonia culled from a cantata and the Easter Oratorio, both reconstituted for a small string ensemble and harpsichord supporting the oboe.

The same configuration is used in the four concertos that comprise the bulk of this release, the interplay between the instruments bearing the delicate, decorative manner of an Italian baroque piece.

DOWNLOAD THIS Sinfonia; Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor