Bach the adapter and re-arranger finds imitators in three of today’s musicians, Hugo Reyne, Pierre Hantaï and Emmanuelle Guigues. They adapt and rearrange his music. The flute sonatas BWV1033, 1034 and 1035 are transposed upwards and played on a recorder; and BWV997, originally only for lute or keyboard, has also been transposed upwards in a reconstruction that also includes a recorder. Only BWV1030b – an earlier, higher-pitched version of BWV1030 – is played on a flute, here a tenor version also called a “flauto d’amore”. Would Bach have cared about these changes? Almost certainly not; this sort of thing was common in his lifetime.

The results on this occasion are not an unqualified success. Recorded balance presents a problem because Reyne is too prominently placed. The unrelenting nature of some of his playing is emphasised while topmost notes can be piercing. The recorded level is also uncomfortably high, but reducing the volume tends to push Guigues into the background. Reyne is like a chameleon, switching between abstemiousness (for instance, in the Fugue of BWV997, the first Allegro of BWV1034, the Allegro assai of BWV1035) and expressive compliancy of the sort that he brings to the Andante/Presto of BWV1033.

Unusually, he eschews embellishment, which accentuates his often bald approach. Ironically, perhaps, the finest performance is of BWV1030b, where the mellow tones of the flute combine with an easy lyricism to bring out the best in the whole ensemble. Was Bach’s choice of instrument right after all?