Twenty-five years after Johann Sebastian Bach’s death his son Carl Philipp Emanuel praised his father’s trio sonatas, stating that “still today they sound great, even though they are older than fifty years.” What a compliment about works of a genre that was notoriously fast to adapt to new styles and fashions in the eighteenth century! Still today, Bach’s sonatas are considered masterpieces of Baroque counterpoint. Yet they might surprise anyone who expects them to feature the usual combination ...