Huge Fun J S Bach and a single popping cork - heard by HOWARD SMITH '... riven with eccentricities ...'

Piers Adams, recordist with Red Priest, must be among the few wind players who would attempt Johann Sebastian Bach's Preludio from Partita in E for solo violin BWV 1006. And after about thirty seconds even he is fudging it somewhat. From there on it's clear that Red Priest's purpose is to capture the spirit and not the letter of these originals.

We have no way of knowing what JSB, the Kapellmeister of Anhalt-Köthen, would have made of all this; I'm inclined to the view that a little of it goes a long way, especially the overly shrill and often intrusive recorders of virtuoso Piers Adams.

Just the same ebullient, often dazzling arrangements can be enormous fun and an invigorating panacea after acres of more fustian, archival repertoire from the Baroque shadows...

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

RED PRIEST

GERMANY

UNITED KINGDOM