Members of the 22-piece Concerto Köln have been called many things, including erudite, authoritative, and inquisitive. They are so curious, in fact, that they refer to themselves as “musical truffle pigs”, referring to their proclivity for digging up obscurities from Europe’s deep trove of concertizing delights.

“It sounds better in German,” claims Lorenzo Alpert, long-time bassoonist of the leaderless touring outfit. “Trüffelschwein is a bit more normally obsessive,” says Alpert, with a laugh. He’s talking from his home in Aachen, Germany, not far from the group’s headquarters of Cologne.

Playing with language is all part of the process for Alpert. Born in Buenos Aires, he moved to Europe in the early 1970s to study and soon helped found the groundbreaking early-music ensemble Hespèrion XX, which specialized in Iberian sounds. In 1991, he jumped to the more Germanic Concerto Köln, whose latest CD reconstructs the symphonies of Franco-Prussian composer Henri-Joseph Rigel, works that were popular in the late 18th century but are now forgotten.

Alpert, who also teaches his principal instrument in Switzerland, says this obscure stuff is surprisingly available.

“Great music is less used up than we might think. Good, quality concert material is not only masterpieces. We have to remember that, in their time, these composers were famous, and there’s a reason for that.”

At the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts next Saturday (August 7), however, Concerto Köln will perform the much more familiar Orchestral Suites of baroque kingpin Johann Sebastian Bach. Surely our truffle snufflers will be putting a new spin on this ancient warhorse.

“Well, yes and no,” Alpert says. “Everything around Bach in his world is very important, and it helps if you have played other material from the same time. That whole early-music movement of the ’80s certainly helped us to be where we are now, and now the barriers have fallen, and there is much more emphasis on context. You will not hear Bach played the way it was 40 years ago. I personally believe it is nearer the way it was played originally.”

The curly-haired bassoonist will also moderate a panel called Inside Music, held the previous day (August 6) at Christ Church Cathedral.

“The public is not totally aware of how Bach suites were written, and for whom. I can explain how the music is constructed, a little bit how Bach treated them in his time—a little bit, so they don’t fall asleep.”

His wide-awake mega-combo picked up some players from Musica Antiqua Köln when those baroque specialists disbanded a few years back.

“Perhaps everything takes a little bit longer without a set conductor, but you can imagine that when everyone is participating, the enthusiasms are much bigger. There’s always someone who takes charge of some aspect, and we remain open to other interpretations. The result is always very interesting.”

Hog heaven, you could even say, for early-music lovers.