It comes as a mild surprise to have Bach’s gamba sonatas actually played on the instrument for which they were written, for on disc they have most frequently been purloined for the cello, the viola or (by Bylsma, surprisingly) the violoncello piccolo. It might be argued that in Bach the substance of the music is more important than the instrument employed, on which a good deal of latitude was common at the time; nevertheless the distinctive timbre of the gamba produces a quite different effect from the often heard suaver cello. In the expert hands of Richard Boothby (who does not totally abjure occasional judicious use of vibrato) the sonatas emerge with more character than usual (certainly more convincingly than in the Cervera-Puyana set), and balance with the harpsichord’s two melodic strands, making a trio-sonata texture – which often proves troublesome – is achieved very satisfactorily. There is real elegance in the Andante of the D major Sonata, the tempo adopted for the G major’s Andante still allows expressive treatment of its modulations, there is a jubilant springiness in the second movements of the G major and D major, and strenuous energy in the Vivace (which has an obvious relationship with the Third Brandenburg) of the stylistically later G minor, though the almost complete absence of dynamic contrast makes it sound rather relentless. Impetus seems to sag a little in the course of the G minor’s Saraband.
The Israeli harpsichordist makes a good impression, with fluent fingerwork throughout, vital rhythmic flow in the fast movements of the solo Toccatas (he takes the first fugue of the D minor at a spanking pace) and convincingly improvisatory-sounding openings: I like the way he deals with the (over?)-long sequence of extraordinary modulations in the Adagissimo of the D minor. The Mietke-copy instrument has not the most beautiful of sounds (at times it’s almost tinny), but it has been cleanly reproduced, and in the gamba sonatas has just the right pungency.'