One of the challenges for a modern-day viola da gamba virtuoso is the need to be constantly searching for (and finding) new and demanding solo repertory with which to demonstrate his or her technical and interpretative prowess – especially given that the supply of this dried up during the course of the Baroque era. One of Fahmi Alqhai’s solutions to this challenge is the more-than-legitimate recourse to transcriptions, and in a tour de force on The Bach Album he presents four such reworkings – all made by himself – of solo instrumental masterpieces by the great composer. […]