Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Deutsche Grammophon · 4835022 · 77 minutes
Víkingur Ólafsson approaches Bach less like a monument to be dusted off and more like a puzzle box, rearranging preludes, arias, and transcriptions into a sequence that feels almost narrative in shape. What strikes you first is the touch — clean, unshowy, almost glassy in its clarity — which lets the counterpoint breathe without ever feeling clinical. It’s the kind of playing that makes you hear familiar lines as if for the first time, which is maybe the highest compliment you can pay a Bach record.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — November 2018
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2018
- BBC Music Magazine — Christmas 2018
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2019 — Winner – Instrumental
“I expected this to be good; but just how good it was was still a surprise…Ólafsson creates a ravishing musical sequence. Every track has its own allure, and many reflect a virtuosity which is…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
Ricercar · RIC401 · 67 minutes
There’s something genuinely moving about hearing Johann Sebastian sitting alongside his uncles and cousins here, reminding you that the Bach family was basically a multigenerational choir before it produced its most famous member. Lionel Meunier and his singers let each voice in the ensemble keep its own character rather than blending everything into smooth uniformity, which turns out to be exactly the right approach for music this intimate and text-driven. It’s a lovely way to hear how a whole musical dynasty thought about grief, faith, and family long before Johann Sebastian took those ideas somewhere extraordinary.
Awards:
- Record Review — 15th June 2019 — Record of the Week
- Presto Recording of the Week — 14th June 2019
- Gramophone Magazine — August 2019 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2019
“One of the key differences between Vox Luminis and many other such ensembles…is how homogeneity is challenged as the default priority…The strong identities within the ensemble allow for new…”
— Gramophone Magazine
Andrew Arthur (harpsichord)
Inventa Records · INV1021 · 1 hour 48 minutes
There’s something almost deceptive about how modest the French Suites seem on paper compared to Bach’s bigger keyboard statements, but that intimacy is exactly the point — these are dances written for someone standing close, not a concert hall. Andrew Arthur clearly understands that, favoring warmth and give over crisp perfection, letting phrases breathe in ways that feel improvised even when you know they’re not. Gramophone picked up on that same spontaneity, and after sitting with all six suites across this recording, it’s easy to hear why: nothing here feels drilled into place.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — August 2026 — Editor’s Choice
“Arthur seems to be an almost ideal advocate for these works. His playing is patient, poetic and genial, and deeply natural…[He] brings a spontaneity that allows each work to feel as if the…”
— Gramophone Magazine
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Deutsche Grammophon · 4864553 · 73 minutes
There’s something almost architectural about how Ólafsson approaches these thirty variations — every repeat feels like a fresh angle on the same building rather than a simple echo, and you get the sense he’s spent years thinking about where the light should fall. The tempos here run brisk, sometimes startlingly so, but nothing feels rushed; instead the whole thing crackles with a kind of restless curiosity that makes the famous Aria at the end land completely differently than it did at the start. It’s the sound of a pianist who’s clearly obsessed with this music down to the smallest ornament, and that obsession is contagious.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 6th October 2023
- International Classical Music Awards — 2024 — Nominated – Baroque Instrumental
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Winner 2023
- Sunday Times — 10 Best Classical Albums of 2023
“With the exception of the ‘Black Pearl’ variation, which lasts almost ten minutes, this is one of the fastest sets I have ever heard, yet it’s also one of the most enjoyable. Ólafsson draws…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Sean Shibe (guitar)
Delphian · DCD34233 · 46 minutes
Bach never actually wrote for the guitar, which is exactly what makes Sean Shibe’s approach so fascinating — these lute works were already living a kind of double life before he got to them, and on guitar they take on yet another shade of intimacy. There’s something wonderfully unshowy about how he plays this music, letting the counterpoint breathe and the melodic lines sing without ever pushing too hard for effect. Forty-six minutes in, you’re left with the sense that Bach’s structures are so sound they can survive almost any translation, so long as the person doing the translating actually listens.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — June 2020 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recording of the Week — 22nd May 2020
- Gramophone Magazine — Critics’ Choice 2020
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Winner 2020
“Shibe applies the musical and interpretative qualities that characterise its predecessors – energy, reflection, eclecticism, integration and emotional candour – to remind us that Bach might…”
— Gramophone Magazine
Timothy Ridout (viola)
Harmonia Mundi · HMM902750 · 61 minutes
There’s something quietly radical about hearing the Bach Chaconne on viola rather than violin — the lines sit lower, the double stops feel heavier, more grounded, and Timothy Ridout leans into that darker centre of gravity rather than fighting it. What makes this program so satisfying is the leap across centuries it makes without ever feeling like a stunt, moving from Telemann’s easy Baroque charm through to Britten and Caroline Shaw as if they were always in conversation. Ridout plays with the kind of unhurried confidence that makes you forget the viola spent so long being treated as an afterthought.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 21st February 2025
- Gramophone Magazine — April 2025 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — June 2025 — Recording of the Month
- Opus Klassik Awards — 2025 — Young Talent of the Year
“This is an album that proclaims the viola as a distinctive, individual solo instrument, ideally served here by its skilled interpreter…this [Bach] Chaconne seems to sum up Ridout’s whole approach…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Julian Prégardien (Evangelist), Stéphane Degout (Christus), Sabine Devieilhe & Hana Blažiková (sopranos), Lucile Richardot (mezzo), Tim Mead (countertenor), Reinoud Van Mechelen & Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (tenors), Christian Immler (bass-baritone)
Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
Harmonia Mundi · HMM90269193 · 2 hours 40 minutes
What strikes you first about Pichon’s Matthäus is how alive the turba choruses feel — that mob energy doesn’t just shout at you, it builds under the surface until it genuinely bites. Julian Prégardien’s Evangelist is the real anchor here, telling the story rather than declaiming it, and Stéphane Degout gives Christus a kind of weary tenderness that makes the final hours land with real weight. With a cast this stacked, you’d expect some unevenness, but everyone from Devieilhe to Mead seems to be listening hard to each other, which is what makes the whole thing feel less like a performance and more like a shared act of devotion.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — April 2022 — Recording of the Month
- Presto Recording of the Week — 15th April 2022
- Gramophone Awards — 2022 — Recording of the Year and Choral Award
- Building a Library — October 2022 — Also Recommended
“The choirs are razor-sharp in their ensemble, and if they seem initially soft-grained (in keeping with Pichon’s essentially intimate approach), their incisiveness eventually locates real venom…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Rachel Podger (violin)
Channel Classics · CCSSA41119 · 2 hours 7 minutes
There’s something genuinely thrilling about hearing these suites reimagined on violin rather than cello, since Podger has to find entirely new ways to suggest the weight and resonance Bach wrote into that lower register. She doesn’t try to disguise the transposition either — instead she leans into the brighter, more dancing quality the violin brings out, so familiar movements suddenly reveal harmonic details you’d never noticed buried in the cello’s texture. Two hours of Bach played this way asks a lot of concentration from you, but Podger’s sense of narrative pull through each suite makes the time disappear.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 26th April 2019
- BBC Music Magazine — July 2019 — Recording of the Month
- Diapason d’Or — September 2019 — Nouveauté
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2019
“A spellbinding set that is arguably Podger’s finest recorded achievement to date…Music that one thinks of instinctively as boldly-etched, deeply (in every sense) introspective and eliciting…”
— BBC Music Magazine
