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GRAMOPHONE (04/2013)
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Reviewer: Lindsay Kemp
Bach and Telemann arranged for bassoon and viola
Why would a viola player or a bassoonist not want to play Bach? And who with
a heart would want to stop them? Here then are three Bach concertos served
up to allow these instruments to bloom: a viola concerto based on the E
major Harpsichord Concerto (itself thought to have originally been an oboe
concerto); a bassoon concerto derived from various concerto-like cantata
movements that may also have once been an oboe concerto; and a concerto for
viola and bassoon that many will recognise as the Violin and Oboe Concerto
(though that itself is a modern-day speculative reconstruction of a Double
Harpsichord Concerto, BWV1060). You get the picture: Bach arranged this
music for whatever was convenient, and so have these artists. They add two
works by Telemann: his perfectly genuine Viola Concerto and a Concerto for
two violas adapted for viola and bassoon.
It all works
well enough because this is great music and these are fine players. Lars Anders
Tomter’s rich, resonant and bouncy tone is obviously that of a modern viola, but
though he threatens to overpower the orchestra in places he shows plenty of
style and vim. Martin Kuuskmann is not always as nimble but he can make his
instrument sing and yearn when necessary. The Norwegian orchestra 1B1 play with
bright freedom and generally give a good account of themselves. In the end,
though, it is all just a bit strange: as you listen to the woody, sepia-filtered
version of BWV1060’s ravishing slow movement, it is like visiting a parallel
universe in which these two Cinderella instruments have always been at the ball.
But then who is to say that, had we all a different mind-set, such could not
have been so?
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