{TABLE} Sonata No 4 in C minor............... BWV 1017................................. Bach Sonata No 5 in F minor................BWV 1018................................. Bach Sonata No 6 in G BWV 1019.............Bach {/TABLE} THE free recitals in the Lane Gallery at midday on Sunday are becoming more and more popular, and deservedly so. The recent recital by Maya Homburger (baroque violin), and Malcolm Proud (harpsichord), the second of two comprising Bach's six Sonatas for violin and harpsichord, was as seductive as the first and in a way even more interesting because of the astonishing slow movement of No 5 in which the violin accompanies the harpsichord with long-held chords. It is a coup de theatre, this sudden transference of interest to the harpsichord, but it would not have worked had it not been for the exquisite balance of the musical partners. In this, as in the other movements, the instruments seemed to move in and out of the musical texture they were creating with the subtlety of the changing colours of nature.

What might be called a bonus in a violin and harpsichord recital was the movement for solo harpsichord in Sonata No 6. Malcolm Proud's melodic, and contrapuntal, sense more than compensated for the absence of the violin and the rapid successions of notes were like a flurry of snow flakes on which order had been miraculously imposed.

The return of the violin in a poignant slow movement reemphasised how suited these baroque instruments are to each other. Their limited dynamic range is offset by the tiny nuances of articulation and phrasing that mirror, in miniature, the more obvious expressiveness of the past, can express a modern sensibility and show that music of the baroque period is no museum piece but a vital part of our contemporary world.