Donald Satz wrote (January 8, 2000):
Winter & Winter sounds like a stock brokerage company but is a relatively new record company based in Germany. They do provide a distinctive packaging to their cds which I like except that the CD’s can either easily fall out of the packaging or be a real "bear" to dislodge. With this new recording of Bach's Violin & Harpsichord Sonatas, performed on period instruments by Marianne Ronez (violin) and Ernst Kubitschek (harpsichord), the CD’s fall out so easily that I have to make sure to hold the package just right.

With most recordings of these six sonatas (BWV 1014-1019), additional sonatas are included to fill up the two CD's. Winter & Winter only provides the six sonatas, so there's a total of less than 100 minutes of music. So far, we have physically unstable CD’s and a relatively small amount of music.

Anything good to say? Plenty. These are fully idiomatic readings which I greatly enjoy. I always start with the 1^st movement of BWV 1019 which is pure harpsichord playing infectious and joyous music with emotional stretching and subsequent tumbling. Kubitschek is perfect in this movement.

My only reservation is that the violin sound in the fast movements was sometimes more than pungent, it was grating/raspy. Because of this, I do still prefer the Holloway set on Virgin which also has 2 additional sonatas. But, other than that recording, I know of none better than the Winter & Winter set.

I should point out that I've read one or two reviews, and they were not complimentary. I don't understand that unless the reviewers are somewhat allergic to barqoue violin playing.

Don's Conclusion: Worthy of purchase, particularly if you want multiple period instrument versions. I think that folks who do not take kindly to baroque violins would have a lot of trouble with the set.

Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord BWV 1014-1019: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Carmignola & Marcon | Comberti & Tilney | Ngai & Watchorn (Satz) | Ngai & Watchorn (McElhearn) | Ronez & Kubitschek | Standage & Ad-El