"Hey - I think kitty's dreaming. Isn't that cute ?"
"Mm. I wonder what cats have to dream about."
- Neil Gaiman, A Dream of a Thousand Cats
 If
one would say that cats could dream, and that they dreamt of dancing
violins and whirling harpsichords in a whirlwind of baroquerie,
they might very well be dreaming of the Bach Violin-Harpsichord
Sonatas as performed here by the pairing of Rachel Podger and
Trevor Pinnock.
Like
all his other instrumental chamber works - the English Suites,
Partitas for harpsichord, Cello Suites, Sonatas
and Partitas for violin - these Violin-Harpsichord sonatas by
Johann Sebastian Bach are collected into a unit of six.
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Long and Checkered History
The
last of the sonatas, Number Six in G Major BWV 1019, technically
does not "belong" in this cycle. While the other sonatas contain
four movements in the slow-fast-slow-fast style, this piece
contains five movements, with the addition of a fast movement
at the start. Further research has uncovered evidence that
the work was, in fact, conceived and developed in three stages.
In
the first stage, Bach included a movement for solo harpsichord
after the opening two movements. An adagio follows, then a
movement marked violino solo e basso l'accompagnato
('Solo violin with basso continuto'), and concluding with
a repetition of the introductory allegro.
The
remarkable fact of this arrangement is the inclusion of the
continuo movement which was marked obbligato, which
instructed the performer has to follow the musical notation
precisely, as opposed to normal continuo playing where the
performer has a figured bass upon which he or she is expected
to improvise upon.
The
second stage removes the two extraneous movements, i.e. solo
harpsichord and violin-basso movements, with Bach putting
in a new slow movement in place of the harpsichord piece,
entitled cantabile, ma un poco adagio. The final five-movement
form of the sonata takes shape here.
In
the final revision, Bach made yet another change for the third
movement, substituting it with an Allegro for solo harpsichord.
Also, instead of just repeating the first movement, he also
substituted the last section with another new movement.
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Carl
Philippe Emmanuel Bach wrote of these Sei Sounate a Cembalo certato
e Violino Solo ('Six Sonatas for some[sic] Harpsichord and Solo
Violin') as "these are the best works by my beloved father. They
sound excellent and still give me much pleasure, even through over
50 years have passed."
One
is immediately struck by the energy of the music-making from the
very first track on disc one. The pedigree of both soloists is immediately
apparent in the fast movement: Podger exudes matchless bravura in
shooting the whitewater rapids of Bach's staves, pedalled on by
Pinnock, who is no less extrovert and exuberant.
Rachel
Podger, who has already released a successful set of Bach Sonatas
and Partitas on the same label (CCS 12198, 14498  ),
could not give a mediocre reading to save her life: she projects
strongly with a lush, bourgeois veneer, with just a minimal amount
of vibrato on long notes to break up the monotony. Trevor Pinnock,
on the other hand, is equally on top of things, bringing to this
partnership his extensive experience and skill as baroque interpreter
and keyboardist.
And
we're not just talking about individual skill here. Both of them
are excellent collaborators, much in agreement on tempi, balance,
sonorities and phrasing. There is much grace and wisdom in their
playing, sculpted with scrupulous phrasing and intelligent dynamics,
big in conception and execution. The sound of Podger's baroque violin
here is wonderfully captured, without the nail-scraping edge sometimes
encountered on period recordings.
 We
are not told explicitly whether the harpsichord is the identical
instrument (a 1978 David Way copy of a Hemsch) Pinnock (left) has
used on other recordings, but its sound is strikingly present. The
violin is placed forward of the harpsichord, giving the former more
emphasis.
Neither
really dominates the other, as is wont to sometimes happen when
both exponents have uneven skill or temperment - which is not the
case here. Theirs is a spirited approach to each of the movements
as if they were dance-like movements, that uncovers the cantor
of Leipzig as a smiling, fun-loving man who lived his music to the
fullest.
One
could almost pick any track from either disc as a sampler of what
Podger and Pinnock could offer, such is the consistency of the level
of playing. But some outstanding instances do come to mind: the
pensive Largo and the whirling fourth-movement Allegro of Sonata
No.4 BWV 1017, and the florid keyboard arpeggios of the Adagio of
Sonata No.5, for example.
Viola
da gambist - if that's what they're called - Jonathan Manson joins
them for a ménage a troi in three of the continuo
sonatas which, depending on how you look at it, are either very
generous fillers or simply an exploratory extension of the complete
violin-harpsichord sonatas.
The
viola da gamba is placed backward, which obstructs Manson's contribution
somewhat - especially with the attention-grabbing sheen of the violin
and the harpsichord, and particularly the former. Apparently the
lower projection of the viola da gamba has not been compensated
for in engineering, which gives it an accurate, if unbalanced, rendition
of authentic timbres.
 Nonetheless,
a careful hearing will reveal that Manson is no less in tune with
his more distinguished partners: the Allemanda and Gigue of the
E minor sonata finds him giving much support. But he really comes
into his own on the revised Sixth Sonata, here performed in all
its various forms with deleted movements (see sidebar).
Podger
(right) projects her part less aggressively, perhaps in deference
to her colleague. The viola da gamba does have a duet with the violin
in the fifth movement of the BWV 1019a, in which Manson partners
Podger with as much aplomb as Pinnock. Pinnock himself has the spotlight
in two solo harpsichord movements, albeit both different. The earlier
version which was eventually deleted by Bach from the final version
can, however, be found in the Notebüchlein for Anna
Magdalena Bach of 1725.
Let's
just say this: Podger & Pinnock are the goods. Their music pedigree
shows abundantly, and this is the blue-ribbon album which proves
it. The first disc is seventy-two minutes, the second sixty-seven,
and the first time I heard this album, the time just flew by. Mere
words aren't enough to describe this music; as a Spanish-speaking
cousin of mine once said in her native vernacular, Oir para ceer:
you have to hear this to believe it.
BENJAMIN CHEE does have a Spanish-speaking cousin, who
is named after the Indian goddess of destruction.
817:
26.12.2000 ©Benjamin Chee
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