Another version the three Bs | Bangkok Post: Arts & Culture

CLASSICAL

In a note accompanying this recording, conductor Alan Gilbert refers to the programme as "our version of The Three Bs" _ with Berg replacing Beethoven _ and describes it as a "serious" and "sad". It spans three centuries and encompasses music dissimilar enough in style to make it challenging to the audience, whose ears will have to do quite a lot of style-sensitivity gear-changing.

J.S. BACH: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043; BERG: Violin Concerto; Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90. Frank Peter Zimmermann, Alan Gilbert (violins), New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert. A New York Philharmonic download available from iTunes and elsewhere

Although it is written in a minor key, not every listener might find the word "sad" to be the one that first comes to mind to describe Bach's Concerto for Two Violins. The central slow movement, with the singing lines of the two violins winding around each other to weave one of the great heartbreaker movements among his concertos, is certainly an utterance of melancholy and sorrow, but the vigorous outer movements express something less inward-looking, even defiant in the finale. The performance here, by Zimmermann and conductor Gilbert, both playing Strads, is very fine. Tempos are fast, as has become standard since the period performance practice advocates started shaking things up during the 1960s, but never rushed, and the timbres of the two solo violins, especially the slightly throaty tone of Gilbert's, are a pleasure in themselves. The chamber orchestra-sized ensemble of New York Philharmonic musicians play their modern instruments with the greatest feeling and precision (a photo of the performance in the accompanying booklet shows the orchestral violinists standing as they play) and the result is a performance that fully justifies the audience's explosion of cheers that greets its conclusion.