MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 - 1750)
Sonate à Cembalo è Viola da Gamba
Sonata for viola da gamba and bc in d minor (after Sonata for violin and bc in e minor, BWV 1023) [12:39]
Sonata for harpsichord and viola da gamba in G (BWV 1027) [14:00]
Toccata for harpsichord in c minor (BWV 911) [11:35]
Sonata for harpsichord and viola da gamba in D (BWV 1028) [15:10]
Sonate for harpsichord and viola da gamba in g minor (BWV 1029) [15:29]
Arnaud De Pasquale (harpsichord), Lucile Boulanger (viola da gamba)
rec. 6-9 June 2011, Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bon-Secours, Paris, France. DDD
ALPHA 161 [69:02]

Experience Classicsonline


The work of Bach scholars is often not unlike that of a detective. In particular his chamber music raises many questions in regard to the time and reason for composition. The three sonatas for harpsichord and viola da gamba are no exception.
 
There is no universal agreement as to when these sonatas were written. It has been suggested they were composed during Bach's time in Cöthen. One of his colleagues was the famous gambist Christian Ferdinand Abel; maybe Bach composed the sonatas for him. Moreover, his employer was an avid lover of the gamba, so music for this instrument would go down well with him. In his early years Bach regularly included gamba parts in his works, for instance in Cantata 106 - the so-called Actus Tragicus - which dates from 1707. At that time it was still a common instrument.
 
It is also possible that Bach composed the sonatas in Leipzig. Could they have been written for Christian Ferdinand Abel's son Carl Friedrich? When his father died in 1737 he moved to Leipzig where he became part of the Bach household and a pupil of Johann Sebastian. He would become one of the most famous gambists of his time. This could explain the choice of the gamba as a solo instrument, since at that time it was increasingly marginalised in favour of the cello. The sonatas are a mixture of 'old' and 'new': the gamba was an instrument of the past; the independent role of the keyboard in these sonatas points to the future. Whereas the sonatas BWV 1027 and 1028 are in four movements, following the model of the Corellian sonata da chiesa, the sonata BWV 1029 takes the form of the Vivaldian concerto, with three movements: fast-slow-fast. Idiomatically it is the most galant of the three.
 
Another interesting question is whether these three sonatas were originally part of a cycle of six, like the sonatas and partitas for violin solo and the suites for cello solo. The sonatas BWV 1028 and 1029 have been preserved in copies by Christian Friedrich Penzel, who entered the Thomasschule in Leipzig in 1751. The title page of the duplicate of BWV 1029 states that Penzel's copy contained these two sonatas and four others. This at least suggests that Bach had originally written six sonatas for this scoring.
 
One aspect is especially important in regard to the performance. Only BWV 1027 has been preserved in Bach's autograph, and the title page says Sonata à Cembalo è Viola da Gamba, which is an indication that the two instruments are treated as equals. That should be respected in the performance, but that is not always the case. Too often the balance is in favour of the viola da gamba, whereas the harpsichord is under-exposed as I noticed in my review of the Naxos recording of Aapo Häkkinen and Mikko Perkola. In the present recording the balance is generally satisfying. The frontispiece uses the title of the autograph of BWV 1027, but unfortunately this didn't make the record company mention the harpsichordist's name first.
 
In my review of the Naxos recording I also noticed the slowness of the performances, lasting more than 52 minutes. I referred to Michael Behringer and Hille Perl (Hänssler Bach Edition) who needed less than 38. With a little under 45 minutes De Pasquale and Boulanger are somewhere in the middle, and I found their tempi mostly just right. Only the andante of BWV 1028 could have been a little faster. Lucile Boulanger plays with passion and produces a beautiful tone. Her treatment of the notes is such that the rhythmic pulse comes off perfectly. The fast movements go with a swing, whereas the slow movements have a great deal of intensity.
 
In most recordings these three sonatas are complemented by other pieces. The addition of a harpsichord piece is the most logical option. Here we get one of the six toccatas for manuals only. These belong to Bach's most brilliant pieces, and the Toccata in c minor (BWV 911) gives Arnaud De Pasquale plenty of opportunities to show his technical prowess. He delivers a technically immaculate and musically captivating interpretation. He plays a beautiful instrument, a copy of a harpsichord by Jean Henry Silbermann from the second half of the 18th century. Less common is the other addition to the programme: Bach's Sonata in e minor (BWV 1023) for violin and bc, here transposed to D minor and performed as a sonata for viola da gamba and bc. Bach himself frequently adapted his own works for other instruments and therefore there is no objection to modern performers doing the same. Much depends on whether it works musically speaking, and that is the case here. The two artists defend this version in a most persuasive manner.
 
There is no lack of recordings of the sonatas for harpsichord and viola da gamba. I haven't heard that many which really satisfy me, and that often has to do with the balance between the two instruments. That is different here, and as the interpretation is very good I rate these performances among the best I have heard.  

Johan van Veen

http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Error processing SSI file