JS Bach’s music continues to inspire all manner of innovative arrangements and reworkings, with examples from the past decade or so ranging from contemporary rock and avant-garde realisations by Absolute Ensemble in ‘Bach Re Invented’ (Sony, 9/13) to Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer’s rescoring of the composer’s trio sonatas for mandolin, cello and double bass (Nonesuch, 6/17).

The brainchild of versatile violinist Linus Roth and enterprising Rio de Janeiro-based chamber orchestra Johann Sebastian Rio, ‘SamBach’ takes a slightly different approach. Rather than working with the original material, Bach and Brazilian music are instead placed side by side to illuminate some surprising connections and associations. This is partly achieved by combining the standard 18th-century strings-plus-harpsichord instrumentation – as heard in Roth and the orchestra’s crisp, no-nonsense performance of Bach’s Concerto in E, BWV1042 – with classical guitar and percussion, instruments more often associated with samba, bossa nova, choro and other forms of Brazilian popular music.

Villa-Lobos offers the most obvious point of contact between these two traditions, as heard in a poised and well-judged performance of the composer’s well-known Bachianas Brasileiras No 5, Roth’s violin carrying the floating vocal line. At other times, such as in the recitative-like opening to Ary Barroso’s song ‘Aquarela do Brasil’ or the sombre sequence of suspensions at the beginning of ‘Tico tico no Fubá’, the two elements intertwine in such a way as to become almost indivisible. Still, some of the best moments (such as in ‘Gago Apaixonado’ and Sérgio Mendes’s ‘Mas que nada’) occur when Baroque ostentation gives way to the rhythmic energy and vibrancy that mark so many Brazilian songs, Roth adding deft Grappelli-like touches to Ivan Zandonade’s tasteful and colourful arrangements, the Johann Sebastian Rio orchestra hanging on to the violinist’s every note. During such moments, one is easily led to believe that rarely have Baroque and bossa nova coexisted in such a dynamic and harmonious way.