It was a good plan to issue all Bach’s multiple keyboard concertos together, but in the outcome it meets with only very variable success. The best performance is of the transcription (perhaps surprising in view of the perfection of the original) of the concerto for two violins. The outer movements are taken briskly here, with a strong rhythmic impulse, and the artists make the most of Bach’s ingenious additions to the texture: the Andante sings persuasively, though I have always regretted the appoggiaturas added to the main melodic phrase, which to my mind mar the purity of line. The splendid two-clavier C major Concerto also comes off quite well, with buoyant, springy articulation in the first movement, although there is some unstable hurrying in the fugal finale. In contrast, the only satisfactory movement of the C minor is the tranquil Adagio; but the initial movement plods along without vitality, and though the finale is certainly sprightly, the very fast speed adopted results in an uncomfortable lack of poise and a fear of imminent muddle (fortunately avoided).
In the three-clavier works the fact has to be faced that modern pianos (however sympathetically played) with their rounder, fuller tone produce a thicker sonority quite alien to anything Bach would have experienced with his harpsichord (or putative violin) originals. The C major piece emerges most successfully here, though somewhat weightily despite some delicacy from the pianists, who admirably share the interplay of interest: the agreeable coolness of their Adagio, however, is not matched by the orchestra, and the piano reinforcement of the bass-line is unnecessarily prominent. The D minor starts stolidly, lumbering along conscientiously but with no airiness; but then it improves, with a calmly flowing Siciliana (in which the tricky unison of the violins with the piano in the melodic line is neatly handled) and a finale which has the ‘lift’ so lacking in the first movement and which points the syncopations effectively: Schiff, however, seems a trifle impatient and presses forward. The mixed triple concerto, unfortunately, is a real loser on this disc, with faults of balance – in the opening Allegro favouring the piano far too much and leaving the flute and violin more distant-sounding, and throughout the work a bashful violin who leaves everything to her partners – and despite Schiff’s attempts at lightness, with a lumpy stodginess in the outer movements, mostly attributable to the orchestra. A mixed bag, I fear.'