This album of music for oboe and strings by
Bach involves mostly hypothetical reconstructions from various times, with a concerto by Alessandro Marcello and a couple of oboe solos from choral pieces to round out the program. Most of the music here is better known in versions for keyboard and orchestra. But nothing about these facts reduces its beauty or even its historical authenticity; there are strong indications that several of
Bach's keyboard concertos were based on lost originals for wind instruments, and in any event arrangements of all kinds were common within
Bach's oeuvre.
Bach himself arranged a good deal of Italian music for new instrumental combinations, and indeed he arranged the Marcello concerto heard here for solo harpsichord. What is heard here is the original concerto, and it's unclear what's meant by the inclusion of
Bach's name in the track list in connection with this work. Veteran Swiss oboist
Heinz Holliger, however, will make you forget such issues with his gorgeous performance of the slow movement of this work, which gains in intensity without overstepping Baroque structure in a way that's very difficult to pull off. The genuine
Bach works are equally affecting, and
Holliger's command of the oboe d'amore in the concerto (BWV 1055) for that instrument shows absolutely no sign of loss of control as he enters his eighth decade. The addition of the sacred music excerpts lends a somber air to the program as a whole, which is dedicated in memoriam to
Holliger's brother and to a colleague. The
Camerata Bern, a historically informed ensemble using Baroque bows and gut strings, offers clean, unobtrustive support, and the entire album is a model for the pairing of a mainstream instrumentalist with an ensemble oriented toward historical performances. Another strong point is
ECM's sound, about which the packaging is silent: wherever it was recorded, the music has an astonishing combination of warmth, clarity, and depth.
Holliger must have played these works hundreds of times, but he adds something new in old age.