Camerata Kilkenny, Maya Recordings MCD 1003****

The

Musical Offering

was the outcome of Bach’s encounter with the music-loving Frederick the Great, himself a flautist and composer. Bach played and improvised for Frederick, and later completed the

Musical Offering

on the “Royal Theme” he had worked with in Potsdam. The pieces that make up the “offering” – two Ricercars, a Trio Sonata, and a bundle of canons – have no particular playing order, and some have no instrumentation, leaving performers a freedom that’s been taken up in a multitude of ways. The five members of Camerata Kilkenny (Wilbert Hazelzet, flute; Maya Homburger, violin; Marja Gaynor, violin and viola; Sarah McMahon, cello; and Malcolm Proud, harpsichord) are lucid guides to Bach’s displays of contrapuntal wizardry, grasping the sensual in performance as well as the more rarefied aspects of Bach’s exceptional compositional achievements. See url.ie/8h2f