In a convincingly argued note Christopher Hogwood points out that the Bach household was exceptional in always having several keyboard instruments and members of the family to play them, singly or together, and that the generic term “clavier”, applied to various types, needs to be understood in the light of the individual works that were composed there. On this disc, then (which has taken three years to emerge), the J. S. works are played on harpsichords (a Ruckers/Taskin and a Hemsch), those of W. F. and C. P. E. on clavichords (both by Hass, tuned at the low pitch of A=390), and J. C.’s Duet on two square pianos (by Pohlmann and Zumpe/Buntebart). The most familiar work here, Johann Sebastian’s C major Concerto, is presented without the strings, which seem to have been added later (and which in any case do not appear in the slow movement): the fugal finale is given an exhilarating bounce; the brisk first movement strikes me as being just on the fast side. Contrapunctus 13, in both its rectus and inversus forms, comes over with splendid clarity. Ensemble throughout is admirably neat, and the balance between the instruments well judged, the contrast between them underlined not only by differences of timbre but by being separated into left and right channels.
Despite a warning not to alter the volume control for the clavichord works, you may feel some slight adjustment desirable in order fully to appreciate their interplay, particularly the delightful Friedemann Concerto, in whose finale the instruments are pitted against each other with dramatic emphasis. The C. P. E. Duets, mostly arrangements of wind pieces, are of slighter interest, though No. 4 is jolly (and played with gusto); that by Johann Christian, in purely galant style, is engagingly showy, and the performers’ evident enjoyment in it communicates itself to the listener.'