Most arrangements of Bach’s adaptable music aim to bring it up to date for modern instruments; this group of transcriptions adapt it to the resources of the time but in new guises. So the great organ Passacaglia in C minor becomes a vigorous essay for solo strings, adding transparency and bite to the glorious sonorities. The Aria variata and Canzona are lesser pieces, but the revelation here is the Goldberg Variations, reimagined as a breathtaking romp. The canons are strictly done, but in the freer variations Rinaldo Alessandrini adds parts at will and dazzles with the virtuosity of his ensemble’s playing. At the end, solo harpsichord and strings touchingly intertwine.
