Here we have two performances of selected Bach keyboard concertos, both on modern piano, and they couldn’t be more different. Following his well-received recording of the Goldberg Variations (5/11), Nick van Bloss, performing with the English Chamber Orchestra, continues his musical comeback with a smooth, articulate and unprepossessing reading of five of Bach’s keyboard concertos. Peter Seivewright, also performing on the piano and with the Scottish Baroque Soloists, finds a lot more adventure but with not entirely successful results.

It is a contrast between poise and precision on one hand, and risk-taking and eccentricity on the other. Van Bloss, who came out of retirement after struggling with Tourette’s syndrome for 15 years, performs these works more in the András Schiff vein, with the piano seamlessly integrated, phrase shapes clear and intelligent, articulation crisp and never intrusive, and the whole thing held together by an underlying sweetness. Under David Parry, the ensemble is smartly balanced with the soloist and intonation is clean.

Unfortunately, Seivewright is backed by a scrappy ensemble with a guitar playing the continuo line. The use of guitar is a welcome variation and a clever way of complementing the muted attack of the piano tone, but there is an intrusive amount of finger noise and the continuo line is retiring to a fault at several points. Seivewright’s piano is far more forward and the string sound is too often acidic. The best one can say of the performance is that it feels like the work of a genuine chamber ensemble, allowing both soloist and ensemble to take interpretative risks – dynamic nuances, very deliberate tempi – that one doesn’t find in van Bloss’s reading.

Most listeners will be more satisfied with the van Bloss disc, though there are movements which feel undeveloped, especially the Siciliano of the Concerto in E major, BWV1053, which like too much of the music on both discs passes by with one missed opportunity after another. If one wants reliable and polished, there are lots of other options, including those by Perahia and Schiff, which aren’t seriously challenged by either of these newcomers.