Harpsichord Concertos #1
So little documentary evidence remains of Bach (many of his major works  are still lost without trace) that the survival of his seven harpsichord  concertos assumes great significance. From these works, we can learn much about  scoring that elsewhere has had to be conjectured; their origin as concertos for  violin or oboe adds to the fascination. Until Bach put it in center stage,  nobody had thought of the harpsichord as a solo instrument: it was with these  works that a new genre came into being that would culminate in the concertos of  Mozart and Beethoven. And they still dazzle today. Naxos's battery of soloists,  led by the musicologist Robert Hill, is extremely good, working up exhilarating  miasmas of sound above the accompanying orchestra. But this orchestra embodies  the concept of historical practice on modern instruments, which raises all sorts  of questions. In both pitch and tone quality, they are irredeemably modern: the  "period" element is somewhat elusive. But as musical archaeologists they are  invaluable: this CD comes as part of Naxos's excellenteight-disc boxof all of Bach's  major orchestral works.--Michael Church