

William Christie is one of the world’s leading interpreters of the music of the French Baroque. Here, though, he crosses the border to give us his thoughts of one of the greatest of all German compositions. Not surprisingly, he draws playing and singing of great sophistication and sheen from Les Arts Florissants, and he’s chosen his soloists well—countertenor Tim Mead and bass André Morsch are particularly impressive. Bach’s rhetoric may not come naturally to Christie’s Francophile sympathies, but he has much to say.