Pachelbel's Canon and Other Baroque Favorites.

Pachelbel's Canon and Other Baroque Favorites. Andrew Parrott, Taverner Players and Choir; Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra. Virgin Classics 72435-57876-2.

The 1980s saw a spurt of popularity in the period-instruments movement, and conductor Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Players and Chorus were right there in the forefront of the action. Today, we tend to take period-instruments for granted, and with the downturn in classical music recording in the 1990s, we don't hear about them so often anymore. One upshot of that situation is this 2004, two-disc, budget rerelease of Baroque favorites by Parrott and his players, plus a few by him and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.

All of the pieces on the discs were issued originally by EMI in the late eighties and early nineties, and all of them are digitally recorded. Frankly, there isn't a weak link among them. The Pachelbel Canon of the album's title is among the best ever recorded. Like the other works in the collection, it's brisk but never rushed, never breathless as some period-instruments ensembles can play them. Likewise, the other works are presented with vigorous refinement: Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2; excerpts from his Orchestral Suites Nos. 2 and 3; Vivaldi's "Spring" and "Summer" from The Four Seasons; Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary; and many others. Perhaps my personal favorite, however, is Parrott and company's rendering of Handel's Harp Concerto in B-flat major, with Andrew Lawrence-King on harp. It's gorgeous.

The sound is remarkably good throughout most of the music, perhaps a tad less vibrant in the two selections with the Boston orchestra. But nothing is ever overly bright or edgy, so there's no worry about the dreaded period-instruments fatigue so common to such recordings early on, especially those in digital. At a price of about ten or twelve dollars for the two-disc set, it's sensible choice, indeed.