Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin
Sonata in G minor (H 542.5) (formerly BWV 1020)
Sonata in C minor (Wq 78 / H 514)
Arioso con variazioni in A (Wq 79 / H 535)
Sonata in B minor (Wq 76 / H 512)
Sonata in D (Wq 71 / H 502)
Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord, fortepiano)
Rachel Podger (violin)
rec. 2022, St. John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood, London, UK
Reviewed as a stereo 16/44 download from Outhere
Channel Classics CCSSA41523 SACD [72]

Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas for obbligato keyboard and violin are quite popular among performers. I have a large number of recordings in my collection, and the list of available performances is growing each year. In comparison, the sonatas for the same scoring by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel don’t receive that much attention. Several recordings of some sonatas are on the market, and in 2017 Resonus Classics released a complete recording by the Duo Belder Kimura, but in no way are they performed as often as those by his father, or as – if we look into the classical era – the sonatas for keyboard and violin by Mozart. Having heard all of them, I wonder why they don’t fare better. Carl Philipp Emanuel’s œuvre is frequently performed these days, and in the realm of chamber music his flute sonatas are quite popular among performers. Given this state of affairs, a recording of his ‘violin sonatas’ by two top-class artists like Kristian Bezuidenhout and Rachel Podger can only be welcomed.

There is a good reason to put the words ‘violin sonatas’ between quotation marks, because these sonatas are scored for keyboard and violin, in that order. It is nice that they are presented that way on the frontispiece of this disc, but it is rather odd that it mentions the names of the performers in the ‘wrong’ order. Old habits die hard.

Emanuel’s father, Johann Sebastian, was the first German composer who wrote sonatas for an obbligato harpsichord and violin (BWV 1014-1019). His son rated them very highly: “The 6 Clavier trios … are among the finest works written by my dear late father. They still sound very good today, and they give me great pleasure, despite the fact that they are over 50 years old. There are certain Adagios in them whose cantabile qualities are unsurpassed to this day”, he stated in a letter to Johann Nicolaus Forkel in 1774. It seems likely that he composed his first own sonatas under his father’s guidance. One of them may be the Sonata in G minor (BWV 1020), which was included in Schmieder’s catalogue because it was thought to be from the father’s pen. Some scholars tend to think that it was in fact written by CPE Bach, but there is still no concluding evidence for the authorship of father or son. This sonata opens the programme; the booklet omits the BWV number. That is debatable, as we still can’t completely exclude JS’s authorship. It would have been a good idea to add it between brackets, if desired with the addition “formerly” (as I have done in the track-list).

The Sonata in D may well date from the same time, at least in its original form; it was written in 1731 and revised in 1746. In its structure – that of the sonata da chiesa, in four movements – and its musical substance it shows strong similarity with Johann Sebastian’s sonatas.

The sonatas Wq 75 to 78 (H 511 – 514) date from 1763. They seem to be conceived as a set, as the manuscript is on the same paper in all four sonatas. Although the two instruments are treated on an equal footing, the keyboard sometimes takes the lead. An example is the Sonata in B minor, the most dramatic one of the set. In the opening allegro moderato,Bach makes use of the ritornello form of the Italian solo concerto. It opens with a solo episode of the keyboard, then the violin enters. Its interventions often have quite a dramatic effect. The Sonata in C minor includes an adagio that is of great expressivity, also due to the composer’s marking con sordino for the violin.

CPE Bach is often considered – and rightly so – as a representative of the Empfindsamkeit. Pieces which attest to that show him at his most personal. Such works were also the least accessible. Therefore in his pieces for amateurs (Liebhaber), he largely avoided to write in that style. In this recording the Sonata in C minor has traces of it, and even more the Arioso con variazioni, especially in the interventions of the violin, which again plays con sordino. This work dates from 1780, and at that time variations were highly popular.

As I wrote in the first paragraph, it is welcome when two top-class artists devote themselves to these pieces, which many music lovers may not know very well. The performances are in line with what one may expect from them. The fast movements are played vividly and brilliantly, and the collaboration of Bezuidenhout and Podger is immaculate. The expressive features are explored to the full, and the slow movement from the Sonata in C minor is one of this disc’s highlights. There is every reason to recommend this disc, so it seems. Unfortunately, there is a big BUT.

That concerns the use of a fortepiano in two sonatas and the Arioso. In the latter case there seems to be a good reason, considering the time of composition. The fortepiano had well established itself in the course of the 1770s. However, Bezuidenhout plays a copy of a Walter dating from 1805. That brings us into the sound-world of Beethoven. This instrument is far too modern for CPE Bach. In the sonatas which are from the 1760s, a fortepiano is a very unconvincing choice. It seems unlikely that Bach played the fortepiano at that time, and if he did, it would almost certainly have been a Silbermann, which is an entirely different animal. Especially in the forte passages, the Walter copy is far too loud, and simply unnatural in CPE Bach’s music.

I find it regrettable that performers who pretend to adhere to the principles of historical performance practice, seem to care so little about using historically plausible instruments. Bezuidenhout is certainly no exception. Therefore, as much as I have enjoyed the performances of these two great artists, I find it impossible to recommend this disc unequivocally.

Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen

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