This piece has a special place in my heart. In 1986 I was a graduate student in DC and knew nothing about classical music. One night I went to see "Children of a Lesser God" in the local theater. The film has a weird soundtrack but at several points the lead character (William Hurt) puts on an LP, always cueing up the middle movement of Bach's Double Violin Concerto. I thought it sounded lovely and went to my local record shop
(Melody Records on Dupont Circle)
and asked the salesperson if he knew the piece and had a recording he could recommend. He did and handed me Trevor Pinnock's recording on Archive with the English Concert. I brought it home, dropped it into my Meridian MCD, and thus opened my world to a whole new musical genre. Despite the early digital woes, I still love the early Pinnock interpretation and the sonics are pretty good. Since then I've picked up the Ton Koopman LP mentioned above as well as the Andrew Manze CD. The performance in the film soundtrack was clearly modern instruments but I much prefer my Baroque on original instruments. To me they sound so sweet and nimble. Anyway, thanks for listening!