Bach: Piano Concertos / Tharaud

Tharaud, Alexandre

Alexandre Tharaud follows his dazzling album of Scarlatti sonatas with another fusion of modern and historically informed performance styles. Joining him in this new collection of Bach keyboard concertos is the dynamic period-instrument ensemble Les Violons du Roy, under its director Bernard Labadie. Alexandre Tharaud leads the current generation of pianists who are both reclaiming Baroque keyboard music from harpischordists and integrating historically informed principles into their playing. Exemplifying this fruitful hybrid of modern piano and authentic style is Tharaud’s collaboration in five Bach concertos with one of North America’s most dynamic period-instrument ensembles, the Quebec-based Les Violons du Roy under its director Bernard Labadie. The programme comprises four concertos for solo keyboard (1052, 1054, 1056, 1058) and also the concerto for four pianos, BWV 1065, in which – thanks to studio technology – Tharaud plays all four solo parts. A bonus item is an arrangement of an arrangement: Tharaud and Labadie have adapted Bach’s transcription for keyboard of an Adagio written by the Venetian Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747). Tharaud describes it as “ a combination of Bach’s solo version and of Marcello’s version for oboe and orchestra – with me playing the oboe line”.