BACH RESTOR’D recording release
Restoration’s recording of JS Bach’s magnificent French Overture in C minor, BWV 831, is scheduled for release on the Rattle Records label, 15 October 2026. Click here for the link to our new album Bach Restor’d on the Rattle website for more details including purchase information.
This work is our own reconstruction of an original version for baroque string ensemble from the version published by Bach for solo harpsichord in B minor. There is a splendid overture movement followed by seven wonderfully varied dances. The recording was made in the sumptuous acoustic of the Stella Maris chapel in Seatoun, Wellington, with expert recording engineer John Neill. More details about the performers and the background research into this possible origin of Bach’s masterpiece are on our Releases page www.restorationensemble.co.nz/releases.
Restoration’s 2024 season, titled French Art and Italian Gusto, was designed around two programmes highlighting masterworks by JS Bach. Our first programme, Bach & Erlebach was performed in two sold-out concerts in July 2024. The audience response was very enthusiastic, and we went on to make a recording of the Erlebach Overture-suite.
The French Overture had been planned as part of our second programme, Bach Restor’d, but regretfully the concerts had to be cancelled – particularly unfortunate, because the performances had to be cancelled twice before, on both occasions through Covid issues. So we are very pleased that we were eventually able to complete a studio recording of the French Overture which has now become available.
RESTORATION is one of New Zealand’s most experienced and accomplished baroque ensembles. The members of the group have been working together over many years in concerts, tours and recordings, and collaborating with numerous visiting and local artists specializing in the performance of baroque music and dance using the original instruments, styles and techniques of the time. The group’s guiding principle is that this music speaks most directly to us with its original voice and inflections, and that modern audiences need no compromises to modern tastes and demands, to gain the greatest enjoyment and enlightenment from this window into the wonderfully foreign world of the past.