Welcoming the German baroque

Admittedly it's the JS Bach, but I've been listening to it all day after recording Salut! Baroque on Friday night at the Albert Hall. There are all sorts of things that worked this night. They played two sets, each of Handel, Telemann, CPE Bach and JC Bach. They were in Albert Hall and it works a treat for a baroque orchestra like this. They were just lovely, playing with gentle period instruments and with some magical performers. The music was delightful. I have heard the JS Bach several times today. Just the right length for the drives I had to do, to Campbell and Queanbeyan. This was the Concerto in C minor for violin and oboe, BWV1060. Well known, not least for Philip Adams and LeninL. There were some coughs but the violin was a dream (Anna McMichael with the most delicious of bowing skills) and the bass violin is unusual but clear and fits perfectly and another Anna, this time Fraser, was singing and the whole band flowed with lively, mobile energy. This was music of a period and place, of baroque Germany, played with understanding and historical awareness (I have yet to read the notes on the relationships of these four). These days, a period concert is a lesson in history as well as a listening experience and this was one. Lovely band, visiting quarterly, well attended. Salut! Baroque are a pleasure from a now-distant yet strangely relevant era.

Salut! Baroque performed at the Albert Hall and comprised Anna Fraser (soprano), Sally Melhuish (recorder), Hans-Dieter Michatz (recorder), Jane Downer (baroque oboe), Anna McMichael (baroque violin), Meg Cohen (baroque violin), Valmai Coggins (baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (bass violin) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).