Dip Your Ears, No. 28 (Kavakos & Stravinsky)

J.S.Bach / I.Stravinsky, Duo Concertante, Suite Italienne, Partita, Leonidas Kavakos, Péter Nagy ECM

Leonidas Kavakos's new disc has the looks and programming that are so typical for its publisher, ECM. The company continues to do excellent and innovative work, seemingly unchanged after being bought by Universal. Kavakos gets a chance to delight with a juxtaposition of Stravinsky's neoclassical (but really neo-Baroque!) Duo Concertante and Suite Italienne (P. Nagy, pf) with Bach's solo partita and first suite.

If you want Bach, you'll want a complete recording (Milstein/DG or Podger/Channel Classics come to mind), but set between the Stravinsky (whose Suite Italienne you'll find to be one of the most charming pieces of music, no matter how conservative your taste) it is some of the finest Bach I have heard in a while. The disc makes for 75 minutes of exalted listening and could turn ears on to the violin that had hitherto not found to it.