Album review: Viktoria Mullova, Ottavio Dantone, Accademia Bizantina, Bach: Concertos (Onyx)

Viktoria Mullova, Ottavio Dantone, Accademia Bizantina, Bach: Concertos (Onyx)

Viktoria Mullova and Ottavio Dantone offer a further Bach programme, pairing the well-known violin concertos in E and A minor with two others transcribed by Dantone from harpsichord concertos.

It's in the central Siciliano movement of the “Concerto for harpsichord in E arr. for violin in D” that the gambit pays off most, the melody transferring beautifully in the new key, its poignant line unspooling graceful curlicues above gentle breaths of string accompaniment. The central Adagio of the transcribed “Concerto for two harpsichords in C minor” likewise becomes a thing of courtly grace.

Download: Concerto for harpsichord in E, arr. for violin in D; Concerto for two harpsichords in C minor, arr. for violin and harpsichord