That Bach’s six organ trios have frequently provided the stuff for ensemble transcription certainly owes much to the fact that their original form is so unusual – separate lines for two hands on the keyboard accompanied by one on the pedals – and that they look pretty much like having been transcriptions themselves. Certainly Bach seems to have had no qualms about adapting one of them (fairly freely) to form the slow movement of his Triple Concerto, BWV1044, and it is thus entirely understandable that players of the violin, flute, recorder or whatever, who wish that Bach had composed more trio sonatas than he did, should see these charming works as tempting ground.
Musica Pacifica are a group from America’s West Coast, and on the evidence of this recording they have their fair share of skill and musicianship. The arrangements are by their recorder player Judith Linsenberg and are never less than utterly convincing, while the recording is admirably lucid and well balanced. It is hard, indeed, to fault them in any way other than to say that the interpretations are a touch on the safe side, a factor which becomes apparent when they are compared with the vigorously imaginative, rather naughtier performances of four of these sonatas by the Palladian Ensemble on Linn. Readers wishing to choose between the two recordings should know, however, that the Palladians’ recording offers a more spacious sound at some cost in clarity, and that they employ lute or guitar instead of harpsichord. Finally, if an unchanging diet of recorder and violin seems at all daunting, it is worth drawing attention also to the recent, more multi-coloured alternative from The King’s Consort on Hyperion.'