As a glance at the titles for this release indicates, this
is pretty much an album of reconstructions. In his learned and
usefully comprehensive booklet notes, Geoffrey Burgess describes
how Bach’s concertos for harpsichord can be shown to have had
other intended solo instruments, the oboe in particular, in
mind. Bach wrote more solos for the oboe into his cantatas than
for any other instrument, and so the lack of concertante
works for the instrument argues that several may have been
lost or have only survived in other guises. This is especially
the case when considering that renowned oboe players such as
his brother Johann Jacob, and Johann Ludwig Rose and Caspar
Gleditsch, would have been available at different periods in
the composer’s life.
This is not the first recording of this kind, and those by Hans-Peter
Westermann on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Burkhard
Glaetzner on Berlin Classics are just a couple of other
examples which overlap in terms of content. The first half of
this programme is a fascinating collection, bringing disparate
movements together to create new pieces. The booklet notes don’t
go into much detail about these lower BWV numbers, but Bach’s
early Weimar cantatas were certainly given enough challenging
hautboy solos to give their unnamed performer plenty
to get his teeth into. These amount to impressively substantial
works which give a refreshing new look to some excellent music.
The Adagio from the Easter Oratorio earns its
place as a movement in its own right, its existence as a possible
original slow movement of BWV 1055 having also been proposed
by musicologist and oboist Bruce Haynes, so with this disc you
can even do some reshuffling and find out which version you
prefer for yourself.
Whatever the sources and arguments for re-creating and restoring
what might be imagined to have been Bach’s original intentions,
these performances are never anything less than entirely convincing.
There are a few familiar movements, but hearing them in this
context and played with such stylish expressive prowess as with
Alexei Ogrintchouk there is no real sense of repetition or over-use
of well known warhorses. The best known individual concertos
are the final two on the disc, starting with BWV 1055.
Even here there is variety built-in, Alexei Ogrintchouk taking
the oboe d’amore, with its lower, richer tones. The lively tempi
and crisp playing of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, harpsichord
continuo included, is very bright sounding, and these performances
are all expertly done and beautifully phrased. The Double Concerto
from BWV 1060 also works very well, the lovely refined
solos of Alina Ibraginova’s violin winding their way around
the Adagio lines of the oboe in a way which can seem
quite sensual at times.
As we have come to expect from Bis over the years, the recording
of this programme is superb. The oboe is close, but not beyond
realistic balance and credibility, and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra
is beefy enough to provide more than adequate backing. The SACD
quality is fairly understated, developing clarity and sense
of line with the increased spatial separation, but with a recording
which also serves superbly in straightforward stereo. Alexei
Ogrintchouk’s tone is attractively rounded, always expressive
and beautifully phrased, and with an effortless and breezy way
of taking flight with the music which makes him ‘invisible’
in technical terms, masterful in the way in which he leads the
band in interpretations which I have a feeling will be the standard
to beat for many years to come.
Dominy Clements
Alexei Ogrintchouk (oboe and director) 
