Notenbuchlein Fur A.m. Bach

SMARANDESCU ZANASI

The Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach consists of two manuscripts which J. S. Bach presented to his second wife Anna Magdalena as a gift: the first in 1722, when the family was living in Kothen, the second in 1725 when they were living in Leipzig. Both manuscripts include minuets, rondos, polonaises, chorales, preludes, musettes, marches, gavottes, and a few songs and arias. The main difference between the two collections is that the notebook of 1722 contains only original works by Johann Sebastian Bach while that of 1725 is more extensive as it also includes songs written by composers of the same era. In the interpretative approach of Cipriana Smarandescu, the short and apparently easy pieces became the basis for extensive embellishments and articulations, maintaining a philological attitude of respect for performance practice while trying to highlight the particular expressive idioms of each piece of music. In order to enrich the timbres of the range of sound, some pieces have been executed with the lute stop register of the harpsichord that, thanks to its sweetness and transparency, made it possible to increase the depth of the colour. The baritone voice was chosen for the songs and arias because of its particular lyricism and freshness, which makes it perfectly suited to the overall character of the Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach.

Price: $25.98