John Butt & Lucy Russell - J.S. Bach: Violin and Harpsichord Sonatas - BBC Radio 3 ‘CD Review’

If I tell you that I think this new Bach recording may excite a degree of critical controversy perhaps I might tell you why... it's from harpsichordist John Butt and violinist Lucy Russell, and while Butt is an acknowledged scholar and authority on Bach, his last recording from just a few months ago of the Well-Tempered Clavier excited some quite divergent reviews, not least here on CD Review. I confessed at the time that it left me cold - worse than that I didn't feel I understood his approach, his rubato etc.... but there were others who hailed Butt's Bach as a magnificent, probing account of the 48. Well, let's find out how the approach works in the accompanied violin sonatas. You will hear some of the same characteristics but at the same time I did find it easier to become involved this time, to share their view of Bach.

[Plays CD] 

I think it's fair to say I enjoyed it much more than I'd expected - the recorded sound is very good as well and it's my CD Review CD of the Week.