After six miserable days of a flu-like virus, I am back in action. Greatly enjoying Bach's Magnificat as performed by the Ricercar Consort, with Philippe Pierlot and five solo singers. I am often undecided about Bach's choral music performed by just a few solo singers, but the present performance is a resounding success, with dead-accurate singing, exemplary balanace, and highly skilled instrumental work. 10/10 for Monsieur Pierlot.

The Magnificat only takes up just over 26 minutes, so the rest of the CD is occupied by a Mass BWV 235, and two organ solos. The Mass, on one hearing, strikes me as JSB writing on auto-pilot. Nothing wrong, but there are reams and reams of such music from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The two organ pieces are downright noisy; Bach could write quiet music for the organ (viz the chorale-prelude Am Wasserflüssen Babylon) but not often, and not here. Here we have a power-drunk organ determined to blast the congregation from the church. I do not like noisy organ playing; organs can play quietly, if they want to, so why is so much organ music so loud, with every available stop pulled out?