The reissue of this recording under the Souvenir series banner is appropriate, a remembrance of how such works were once played. Ricci, though not consistently on his best form, produces a warm (but not over-sumptuous) tone but leaves little air between his notes, and invariably opts for the penny-plain where one might expect a little by way of embellishment. Though his tempos are mostly on the slow side, it is only in the Andantino of the A minor Concerto that one is uncomfortably conscious of the fact. There is little sign of the light of scholarship that has brightened many of the middle-of-the-road performances during the last two decades. If it were not for Ricci's love of Bach's music, which is particularly evident in the slow movement, one might go so far as to describe these accounts as pedestrian.
The A major Concerto, BWV1052 is another 'souvenir'—of the times when some might still believe in the validity of this particular 'reconstruction', the unconvincing dreariness of which contrasts with the different realization recorded by Simon Standage and Collegium Musicum 90. The individually unidentified City of London Ensemble are less than alert in reacting to Ricci's direction. The 'tidy' collector will prefer a recording that includes the Double Violin Concerto, BWV1043 (say, Mutter with Accardo and the ECO—EMI, 2/84) and is likely to make an exception only in favour of one that offers something especially compelling, which this present one does only to someone who is interested in comparing a good 'reconstruction' with a bad one.'