Bach: Sonatas For Viola Da Gamba & Harpsichord

Album cover art for upc 8424562204119
Label: GLOSSA
Catalog: GCD920411
Format: CD

Markus Hünninger, harpsichord & organ; Paolo Pandolfo, viola da gamba with: Michael Chance, countertenor; Harry van der Kamp, bass; François Joubert-Caillet, violone

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord Sonatas I-III BWV 1027-1029 / Arias with obbligato viola da gamba Komm, süßes Kreuz (Matthäus-Passion) - Es ist vollbracht (Johannes-Passion)

Fifteen years on from his earlier recording of Bach's three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord (on Harmonia Mundi, alongside Rinaldo Alessandrini), Paolo Pandolfo is now returning to this repertory with a thoroughly rethought approach, the fruit of active and concentrated years of consideration, study and research into the inherent possibilities of his instrument. Given the basic differing natures of these two instruments, the performance of these works very often turns - in Pandolfo's words - into a "musical argument", rather than what is demanded by the music's essential nature: a "musical conversation" in which the score achieves "transparency and eloquence".
For this exercise in interpretative discourse Paolo Pandolfo has found a suitably-engaged musical mind in harpsichordist Markus Hünninger, a friend for many years and a teacher, like Pandolfo, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The resulting disc has a very personal flavour to it, reiterating the uncompromising sense of quality in all that the Roman gamba player does. Following on from his essential recordings of music by Forqueray, Hume, Marais, Sainte Colombe and Abel, he is now rounding off on Glossa his own particular vision of Bach, which he commenced in 2000 with the recording of the now-legendary Six Suites.
To complete the disc there are two vocal arias with obbligato viola da gamba drawn from two of Bach's Passions, in which Pandolfo is joined by two leading early music singers of recent times, the countertenor Michael Chance and the bass Harry van der Kamp.

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