J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, a set of six instrumental works presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, show the composer at his most inventive and accomplished. They serve up a feast of entrancing melody, vivid color, and instrumental virtuosity. And it’s hard to imagine them being more sympathetically performed than here. Recorded in London and Paris in 2009, this set finds the English Baroque Soloists, a period-instrument group founded in 1978 by the British conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, in sparkling form. Gardiner takes something of a back seat here, leaving the musicians to self-direct four of the six works, in the spirit of chamber music. The playing combines vitality, grace, and precision with star turns from the ensemble’s regular cohort, not least leader Kati Debretzeni, as well as trumpeter Neil Brough, recorder-player and flautist Rachel Beckett, and harpsichordist Malcolm Proud. Gardiner masterminds the proceedings with unforced freshness, personable warmth, and winning flair.