TELEFUNKEN
1 LP - SAWT 9433-B - (p) 1963
1 LP - 6.41054 AS - (p) 1963
2 LPs - 6.48076 DT - (p) 1963
2 CDs - 3984-21353-2 - (c) 1998

SONATEN FÜR VIOLINE UND CEMBALO - Vol. 2






Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) Sonata VI G-dur, BWV 1019
14' 56"

- Allegro
3' 52"
A1

- Largo
1' 46"
A2

- Allegro
2' 34"
A3

- Adagio
3' 23"
A4

- Allegro 3' 22"
A5

Sonata IV c-moll, BWV 1017
12' 49"

- Largo
2' 27"
A6

- Allegro 4' 27"
A7

- Adagio 3' 29"
B1

- Allegro 2' 27"
B2

Sonata II A-dur, BWV 1015
13' 27"

- (Dolce) 3' 24"
B3

- Allegro 3' 29"
B4

- Andante un poco 3' 14"
B5

- Presto 3' 20"
B6





 
Lars FRYDÈN, Barockvioline (Alexander Kennedy, London 1767)
G
ustav LEONHARDT, Cembalo (Martin Skowroneck, Bremen 1962, nach J. D. Dulcken, Antwerpen 1745)


 






Luogo e data di registrazione
Hamburg (Germany) - 1/2 Ottobre 1962


Registrazione: live / studio
studio

Producer
Wolf Erichson


Prima Edizione LP
Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SAWT 9433-B (Stereo) - AWT 9433-C (Mono) | 1 LP - durata 43' 49" | (p) 1963 | ANA
Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | 6.41054 AS | 1 LP durata 43' 49" | (p) 1963 | ANA | Riedizione
Telefunken | 6.48076 DT | 2 LPs - durata 43' 49" - 41' 12" | (p) 1963 | ANA | Riedizione (Sonaten I-VI)


Edizione CD
Teldec Classics | LC 6019 | 3984-21353-2 | 2 CDs - durata 41' 58" - 43' 36" | (c) 1998 | ADD | (Produzioni I-II-III)

Cover

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Note
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Bach's “Sei Suonate 4 Cembalo certato e Violino Solo, col Basso per Viola da Gamba accompagnato se piace”, as they are called in the title of Bach's auto- graphs (written ca. 1720), occupy, together with the three sonatas each for flute and harpsichord and gamba and harpsichord, a special place among these Köthen compositions as also in the art of the sonata of that age. The solo sonata of the baroque period was almost exclusively for a melody instrument with continuo accompaniment, and therefore in its essence in two parts with a leading upper part and a bass that laid the foundation for the harmonic development and could only secondarily be linked with the melodic part in its motifs. Bach himself wrote a few sonatas of this traditional type, but he was at all times ready to break the bonds of a traditional approach from within, as it were, by means of more profound expression and greater concentration in the writing, even in works that lent themselves to social occasions or musical activities in the home, and this fact, together with Bach's ever-present partiality to polyphony, may well have led with a certain inevitability to a new type of composition, unique in its time: the solo sonata with a fully worked-out harpsichord part in two voices, in other words a synthesis of the trio writing and solo sonata principles.
The six Violin Sonatas are the most important examples of this category. Their basic dominant feature is the three part writing, each part being absolutely essential, the harpsichord parts almost as substantial as the violin part. Only a few passages, mainly in slow movements, still seem reminiscent of the traditional continuo writing, as one of many possibilities in the technique of composition that are handled with supreme mastery. In these passages the harpsichordist's right hand plays figurated chords against a continuo-like bass line in the left hand; occasionally the violin too, in complete reversal of the musical functions, takes part in this chordal playing while the harpsichord part continues in strict two- part writing.
Like the technique of composition employed in the works, their form also com- bines old and new elements into an inseparable unity of strongly personal character. Whereas the four movements of the traditional Church Sonata (Slow- Quick-Slow-Quick) remain unaltered on principle, there prevails within the movements themselves a unique wealth of forms that combines abundance of ideas and order with Bachian intensity. But above all details of form and compo- sition stands the wealth of characters into which the expression crystallizes; it is this which ultimately imparts of the works their outstanding greatness and makes them the most important sonatas in the entire violin literature before Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.
Sonata No. 6 (G major, BWV 1019), the only one of the series to deviate from the traditional four-movement form, symmetrically groups four violin-harpsichord movements around an Allegro played by the harpsichord only (the final version, played on this record, is the result of several revisions and dates from the Leipzig period). Both in its style and in its expression it is simpler in effect than its sister works; the counterpoint is almost constantly in free concertante style, and it is only the fourth movement with its sighing motifs that brings more serious strains into the work's carefree, playful character. The first movement, a typical concerto Allegro, is followed by a melodious Largo that corresponds to the last movement but one, being exactly the same lenght; the harpsichord solo is, like the first movement, a playful concertante Allegro while the Finale is a stylized Gigue in the old suite tradition.
Sonata No. 4 (C minor, BWV 1017), an outright earnest and austere work pervaded by sorrowing chromaticisms, develops, by way of contrast, other forms of threepart writing. The two slow movements, in Siciliano and Sarabande character, are melancholy vidin lines over a twopart harpsichord accompaniment of broken chords, not related thematically and like a "surface" of sound in its effect, almost "romantic" in character and texture. The first Allegro, on the other hand, is an austre three-part fugato whose writing is extremely complex, without the thematically contrasted middle section usual in these sonatas, but instead interwoven with sorrowful chromatic counterpoints that stand out more and more intensively in the course of the movement's development. The Finale approaches the concerto type of movement thematically, but it again is structly in  three parts and largely imitatory in texture. In its basic mood it is hardly less gloomy and abrupt than the second movement.
Sonata No. 2 (A major, BWV 1015), is lighter in its effect than the C minor Sonata, on account of its relaxed, one could almost say festive mood; on the other hand it displays a similar wealth of contrasts and skillful formal features than its sister-work. After beginning with a tender Andante whose motifs are given strict treatment, it continues with a surging quasi-concerto movement with thematic material typical of the concerto style and virtuoso arpeggios for the violin. The second Andante is a strict canon for the upper voices over continuous semiquaver movement in the bass, while the Finale surprisingly treats a theme almost in folk song style or even more popular in character with all the arts of strict counterpoint and all the impetus of concerto style.