John Puccio reviews ...(THE MUSIC)

Bach: Orchestral Suites Nos. 1-3. Philip Ledger, English Chamber Orchestra. Virgin Classics 7243 4 82118 2.

Philip Ledger is an exacting conductor, and the English Chamber Orchestra is a meticulous ensemble, so you would expect anything they did to be pretty good. These Bach Orchestral Suites are, indeed, fairly good, but they don't really soar the way they should. They don't have the high spirits or lively inflections we hear from the very best performances on record.

I don't suppose we have much right to expect a truly classic interpretation from a budget-priced, 1991 issue, but I was still mildly disappointed in what I heard. Every note seems to be in place, every instrument is in precise accompaniment with every other instrument, every tempo and every phrase seems calculated for maximum correctness. Which is perhaps the problem: Ledger has squeezed the life out of the pieces, leaving them sounding a bit dull and ordinary. Moreover, we get only three of the four suites Bach wrote, not unusual since most sets spread the works over two discs, but here there is no second disc.

Finally, there is the sound, which is also more than a bit lifeless. It is largely devoid of dynamics, bass, or internal definition, appearing instead as bright and lean and not a little leaden. Compare this to Marriner's renditions of all four suites on a single, mid-priced Decca disc, and you see in Marriner a more sparkling manner, a more robust sound, and a far better proposition all the way around.

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra; Martinu: Memorial to Lidice; Klein: Partita for Strings. Christoph Eschenbach, the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ondine SACD ODE 1072-5.

I have been saying over the years that live recordings give up too much in audio quality for any potential benefits in spontaneity, but this one contradicts expectations. It's a superb recording of three superb performances and gets high marks on all counts.

Christoph Eschenbach is in top form and his Philadelphia players have never sounded better in works that commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. This is not to say that the music is entirely solemn, but it is appropriately elegiac and reminds us again of the horror those times.