Partita In D Minor: Chaconne

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, for the silk, lace and velvet outfits worn by the members of the Eroica Trio in the booklet photos do at least hint at the nature of the music-making on the disc. This is baroque repertoire played in an unabashedly old-fashioned way, warm and genteel, soft phrases delivered at stately tempos with lush vibrato, not a hint of the spare-toned edginess of many authentic instruments practitioners.

The romantic attitude is most strongly conveyed in the two well-known works heard in arrangements, the grandly tragic Adagio of Tommaso Albinoni and the dramatic Chaconne from J. S. Bach's D minor Partita, which here almost sounds more like a work of the 19th century than the 18th. The three trio sonatas by Antonio Vivaldi, his compatriot and contemporary Antonio Lotti and Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Loeillet, are somewhat less arresting pieces but still given lovely, affectionate performances.