We can get far too stuck in thinking we know how Baroque composers meant their music to sound. I went to a master class once with a top violin teacher and he asked me to play him a piece of Bach. I duly played it in what I thought was correct Baroque style and he stopped me almost straight away and asked me why I was playing it like that. I said: "because that was how I thought it ought to be played", and he said "no, no, no!" and then told me that I have my own style (he's heard and enjoyed my jazz playing), and that I should play it like that.
I said what??? With swoops and slurs and all the rest of it? And he basically said why not? That's how you like to play - that's your style - so go for it. So I did and he was much happier, because I was playing it with my own interpretation.
This can be argued back and forth ad infinitum, but at an AB seminar I went to last year they pretty much said the same thing - to interpret Baroque music the way you want.
Visit a site called www.huberman.info (or www.huberman/info - I forget which), and listen to samples of Huberman playing Bach in the 1940's. He played impeccably but like a gypsy - and whatever you think you have to hand it to him for his sheer genius and the originality of interpretation, without losing the meaning of the piece - in fact if anything bringing out more depth of meaning than you'd hear in a dry "authentic" version.
Violinia
PS I've also got a great version of Stephane Grappelli and Eddie South playing Bach's Double Violin Concerto (with Django Reinhardt playing chords on guitar). I have absolutely no doubt Bach would have loved it.
