Recorded in July 1984, we are told, with the purpose of ''commemorating'' (celebrating, surely?) an event in 1985—the first tour of the USA by this chamber orchestra—one must hope that indeed the tour actually takes place. On the merits of the performance of the music, it certainly should: this is among the best of the smaller orchestras of Europe, playing neatly and stylishly whatever may be put in front of it.
On this occasion its own soloists are featured. Both violin (Marieka Blankenstein) and oboe (Douglas Boyd) illuminate the Bach, which turns out to be the familiar two-harpsichord concerto in C minor in a putative original for the two 'new' soloists, who do indeed make their version sound very convincing. This is in spite of still playing the concerto in C minor, rather low for the oboe (a bit more of the putative suggests rather strongly that D minor is a better key for this particular exercise). The quality of the Mozart performance may be described easily: it is marvellous, with a quartet of soloists playing into each others' hands with uncanny balance and superlative style. Enthusiasm for the Vivaldi must be relatively muted: it is a piece with a vast concertino which, obviously on the way to inventing the symphony orchestra without quite achieving anything so spectacular, manages to blur the distinction between solo and tutti sufficiently to fall, perhaps, between two stools.
Enjoyment of the good quality of recording is also somewhat blurred by intrusive applause; though the intrusion is limited, happily, to the final resonances of the music, not its body.'