Susie Napper and Margaret Little, enamored of Bach’s Italian Concerto, BWV971, itself a brilliant harpsichord accommodation of the generic Italian concerto of Bach’s day, arranged it themselves to play on their viola da gambas. Bach’s music is often easy to transcribe, yet the complicated voicing of the Italian Concerto will be a match for the two gambists. Napper plays a 1703 gamba made by renowned London maker Barak Norman, one of the most important early English string makers and one of the few early English cello makers.

Little plays a 1982 Prunier and Kraft modeled after an example by Monsieur de Sainte Colombe’s innovative collaborator, Michel Colichon. Colichon added the lowest string to the bass viol, making an evenly symmetrical six strings. Only six survive. Les Voix Humaine’s labor-of-love is due to be released on CD next spring. The website is: http://www.lesvoixhumaines.org/