The Camerata Lysy, like the International Menuhin Music Academy Gstaad of which it is a part, is directed by the violinist Alberto Lysy; its members are young, devoted and talented. The main soloists are the two distinguished eponyms but reward for achievement comes with the added presence of three ex-students of the Academy, all now embarked on successful careers—Hu Kun's excellent London debut was early in 1986.
The Camerata are not a specialized band but, with Menuhin on hand, it is not surprising to find them in good touch with baroque music; it is Menuhin who plays the recorded examples accompanying Robert Donington's book String-playing in Baroque Music (London: 1977), largely concerned with the judicious use of modern instruments. The string sound is agreeably transparent and, a few passing moments aside, free from excessive and over-intense vibrato. The slow movements are particularly sensitively handled but the quicker ones are more notable for their enthusiastic buoyancy than for the subtlety of their phrasing and nuancing. It's a small point but an indicative one, that even the soloists invariably begin their trills with the auxiliary note but seldom emphasize it, conveying the manner but not the natural feeling. The sole curiosity of repertory here is the adaptation of BWV1064, three violins replacing as many harpsichords and transposed one tone higher. If this was indeed already an arrangement (by Bach) of another work, the pointers to what the original form might have been are less clear than in other, known cases. Though the contrapuntal goings-on are frequently made much clearer, so radical are the changes that one must approach this 'reconstruction' as a fresh work in its own right: as such it is a most enjoyable exercise in guesswork.
This would not be my first choice as a way of hearing this music but it does have an agreeable freshness that will appeal to those who are less concerned with stylistic niceties than with the joyousness of baroque music. The recording is bright and favours the soloists.'