Bach had a special gift for creating a dialogue between instruments, for crafting, from just a few voices, something that resembles a lively conversation, sometimes animated, sometimes tender. This concert is a fine illustration of that. We hear four concertos: one for oboe, one for violin, and two for two harpsichords. This last combination is rare and delightful: two harpsichords responding to one another, feeding off each other, intertwining, with infectious energy.

The Violin Concerto in A minor is one of Bach's most beloved works, and it is easy to understand why: there is a warmth and melodic generosity here that goes straight to the heart. The Oboe Concerto BWV 1059R is a modern reconstruction, as Bach's original has been lost, and only a nine-measure fragment survives, corresponding to the opening of the Harpsichord Concerto BWV 1059. Musicologists were able to reconstruct a plausible version of the concerto based on movements from cantatas.