Some of the contrasts in character between the many movements of these six sonatas that are so easily achieved on the organ can easily be lost when they are separated from that instrument. Their perfection, both as music and as the study aids for Bach’s son that they were, requires complete equality in balance between the two manuals and pedals. The matching of plucked instruments in guitar and harpsichord may allow for this but it’s still not totally evenly balanced or together, so it’s hard to engage with these pieces without a reinforced bass-line to represent the organ pedal part. In these arrangements by Eliot Fisk and Albert Fuller there is not as much attention paid to the left hand of the harpsichord as there was in Julian Bream’s effective lute arrangements. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it just transports the listener very far away from what is really the true identity of these pieces and in the same way loses the masterful sense of total self containment that these pieces have.

It’s fortunate, then, that the trio sonatas happen to work so well for guitar – Fisk plays with enormous warmth and commitment in this reissue of his 1998 recording. His profound insight into the counterpoint brings out the beauty of the melodies and their inner dialogue with great ease in a way that has a disarming ability to sound so beautiful on the guitar.