Ton Koopman’s enthusiasm for the bread and butter of his long career – for the music of JS Bach, and for playing it with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, which he founded in 1979 – hasn’t faded. This all-Bach programme read like a greatest hits tracklist, yet the music sounded unflaggingly fresh.
It began with the Double Concerto for oboe and violin in C minor, with Catherine Manson stretching out some supple violin lines and the oboist Marcel Ponseele sounding sweet in the faster music, a bit blunter in the slow movement. Koopman directed from his seat at the harpsichord. The ensemble sound was rich and resonant in this living-room acoustic, weightier than some, an impression reinforced by the way Koopman at times shaped the phrases into big, full-bodied crescendos that swelled and then subsided.
