Solo
Lucile Boulanger (viola da gamba)
rec. 2020, Abbey of Noirlac (Centre Culturel de Rencontre), France
Reviewed as a stereo 16/44 download with pdf booklet from Outhere
ALPHA 783 [2 CDs: 90:44]
Bringing together Johann Sebastian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel on one disc makes much sense. Abel was from a family of viol players, and both he and his father Christian Ferdinand knew Bach personally. Christian Ferdinand was in the service of the court in Cöthen as violinist and gambist, when Bach was appointed Kapellmeister there in 1717. It is likely that Bach composed his three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord for Abel as teaching material for the instruction of his employer, Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Cöthen, who was a great lover of the gamba. Bach was also the godfather of Abel's eldest daughter. Carl Friedrich was taught the viol by his father and moved to Leipzig in 1737, when his father died. There he renewed his acquaintance with the Bach family. In 1743 Abel entered the service of the court in Dresden, and in that town Wilhelm Friedemann Bach worked as organist. Abel left Dresden when it was destroyed by Frederick the Great. During the 1758/59 season he went to London, where he connected with another Bach son, Johann Christian. The two founded a concert series, known as the Bach-Abel concerts. During those concerts virtuosos from across Europe performed as soloists, and Abel also played, either on the viola da gamba or the cello.
The music that he played at public concerts was the more easily accessible stuff. It is in his pieces for viola da gamba solo, without any accompaniment, that he was able to show his skills, both technically and in style. He usually improvised, and it is assumed that the solo pieces, most of which are included in the so-called Drexel manuscript, are the fruits of these improvisations. Lucile Boulanger has recorded a selection from this manuscript. Others have done so before; the entire collection is available on disc.
What is unusual on this set of discs is that we get a lot of Bach as well. He has written relatively little for the viola da gamba. The three sonatas mentioned above are his only chamber music works for the instrument. In addition he wrote parts for viols in his 6th Brandenburg Concerto and used it in several vocal works, such as the two Passions and the Actus Tragicus. Lucile Boulanger, in an interview in the booklet, says: "The intriguing question this programme is trying to answer is: why did Bach never write for the solo viola da gamba? He knew about its harmonic possibilities, as he showed in the St Mathew Passion (...)". She does not come up with an answer, but suggests: "Is it possible that he thought the gamba, which had always been accustomed to combine both melody and accompaniment, a too obvious medium? Perhaps Bach did not want to give way to the comfort of a wonted technical idiom, and felt the desire to innovate, to transform constraint into a liberating gesture?"
Whatever is the case, she decided to try to find out how some of Bach's music written for different instruments, would sound on the viola da gamba. She first selected some pieces that Bach had transcribed for another instrument himself. An example is the grave from the sonata for violin solo BWV 1003, which Bach transcribed for harpsichord (BWV 964). Because of the viola da gamba's double stopping possibilities, the selection of some pieces for violin was obvious. In the same category falls the prelude which opens Bach's Well-tempered Clavier I. Another obvious choice were movements from Bach's suites for cello solo. Some of Boulanger's colleagues have recorded some or all of the cello suites on the viola da gamba. No polyphony is required in the bourée angloise from the Partita for flute solo BWV 1013.
In Abel's pieces no transcription or arrangement is needed, but even so, Boulanger closes Bach's Suite in D, which opens the first disc, with a gigue that is based on the Allegro in A (WKO 212) by Abel. "In the guise of a Gigue, I travelled in the opposite direction, transcribing a piece by Abel and filling it out harmonically, in the
manner of Bach."
Those who know Abel's music, won't be surprised by its quality. It is at the very top of what was written for the instrument in the 18th century. "For us he is core repertoire, an essential fixed star", Lucile Boulanger says. Her intensive concern with this repertoire has born fruit. She delivers excellent performances of great intensity. A brilliant example of Abel's improvisational skills and Boulanger's realization of them is the Adagio (WKO 209). The surprise of this disc is what she does with Bach. The transcriptions sound very well. In the case of the above-mentioned prelude I had not expected that. Among the highlights are the sarabande from the Cello suite BWV 1012 and the Fugue BWV 1000/1001.
Undoubtedly not every piece by Bach lends itself to a transcription for the viola da gamba. Lucile Boulanger has made a clever selection, and as a result this set of discs is a convincing case for Bach on the viola da gamba, and musically compelling at that.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
Contents
CD 1
Johannn Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
[Suite in D]
Prelude BWV 846/846a [01:45]
Allemande BWV 1012 [08:38]
Courante BWV 1009 [04:00]
Sarabande BWV 1012 [05:23]
Gavottes BWV 1012 [04:05]
Gigue after CF Abel, Allegro in A (WKO 212) [02:09]
Carl Friedrich ABEL (1723-1787)
Adagio in D minor (WKO 209) [04:19]
[Andante] in D minor (WKO 206) [02:06]
Allegro in D minor (WKO 207) [02:56]
Johann Sebastian BACH
[Solos in G minor]
Prelude BWV 999 [01:49]
Bourée angloise BWV 1013 [03:13]
CD 2
Carl Friedrich ABEL
[Arpeggio] in D minor (WKO 205) [02:34]
[Moderato] in D minor (WKO 208) [05:47]
Allegro in D (WKO 186) [03:28]
Fugue in D (WKO 196) [02:32]
[Adagio] in D (WKO 187) [03:58]
Tempi di Minuet in D (WKO 200) [03:02]
Vivace in D (WKO 190) [03:59]
Johann Sebastian BACH
[Sonata in A minor]
Grave BWV 964/1003 [05:22]
Fugue BWV 1000/1001 [06:41]
Siciliana BWV 1001 [03:27]
Allegro BWV 1003 [06:52]
