Johann Sebastian Bach’s music has long proved to be adaptable – and indestructible – to all manner of transcription. Robin O’Neill’s version of the Goldbergs – for strings solo and tutti with flute, oboe, cor anglais and two bassoons, O’Neill’s own instrument – is very successful, at once musically familiar yet freshly and imaginatively transformed for seventy-four minutes of timeless eloquence and exhilaration, Bach’s diversity celebrated. O’Neill conducts and chooses tempos that are persuasive to the needs of the moment, his Philharmonia Orchestra colleagues wonderfully responsive. November 2023 – engineer Ben Connellan ensures that Henry Wood Hall is identifiable before the credits are read, Rachel Smith has produced an immaculate recording, and O’Neill writes an informative booklet note that includes a description of each Variation and the bookending ‘Aria’ and how he has orchestrated them, separately tracked. BIS-2658 (SACD) is enthusiastically recommended; big appeal.
https://philharmonia.co.uk/bio/robin-oneill