This new recording of Bach’s six sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord is a cause for celebration. In his contribution to the booklet notes, Kristian Bezuidenhout dwells on the influence of the double-manual harpsichord by Michael Mietke, which Bach had at his disposal in Cöthen, on the master’s subsequent instrumental writing: “The sophistication of this Mietke sound (and that of similar instruments of the time by Gräbner) galvanises Bach into unlocking previously undreamt of realms of keyboard colour. Crucially, he also grasps that a sound of such richness can serve as the cornerstone for a new genre in which the harpsichord can be the true partner to a solo instrument like the violin.”

For this recording, Bezuidenhout appropriately borrows Trevor Pinnock’s John Phillips harpsichord after Johann Heinrich Gräbner (1722), “a marvellous example of the large, middle-German instruments of which Bach was so fond.” It complements...