The Experts – The Bach & Silbermann Dynasties
Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas (harpsichord, fortepiano, organ)
Marc Mauillon (baritone)
Ensemble Les Surprises
rec. 2023, Théâtre Blossac, Châtellerault, France & 2024 & Dom St Marien, Freiberg, Germany
Reviewed as a download
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902738 [80]

Bach and Silbermann are often mentioned in the same breath. They knew each other well, their paths crossed, and Gottfried Silbermann presented his first fortepiano to the Thomaskantor, and the latter’s opinion of it helped him improve his concept. The connection between Bach and Silbermann has led to Silbermann’s organs often being considered the ideal instruments for Bach’s music, but that is debatable.

The French harpsichordist and organist Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas has taken the Bach-Silbermann connection as a reason bringing the two together on a CD. His aim is to trace the development of both. In the Bach family, this is mainly between the father and his sons or students. This is then linked to the developments in the Silbermann dynasty – in addition to Gottfried, his brother Andreas – and their students. This is reflected in a programme with pieces in which the organ, harpsichord and fortepiano are played alternately.

De Camboulas has chosen as an example of a Silbermann organ the famous instrument in Freiberg Cathedral; the fortepiano is a copy of a Silbermann instrument, the original of which is not mentioned. It is astonishing that the harpsichord is a copy of an anonymous instrument, although some of the harpsichords built by Silbermann are in museums.

How do you put together a programme that aims at bringing together developments in the field of instrument making and stylistic developments in the composition of music? Keyboard instruments are of course the focus, and since Bach was a famous keyboard instrument player and his sons and students also mastered the art of playing them, it is not difficult to select relevant works. We hear  both solo keyboards and keyboards in ensemble. In the latter case, there are some songs with basso continuo or fortepiano, one of the trio sonatas by Johann Sebastian in a setting with two violins and basso continuo, and a short keyboard trio by Carl Philipp Emanuel.

Solo pieces on organ, harpsichord and fortepiano are by the father and the sons. Pupils are completely absent from the programme. If De Camboulas had included these as well, it would have been even more short-winded than it already is. That is my biggest reservation about this recording: there are some larger works – the two trio sonatas (one as chamber music and one as an organ work, as it is intended), the Fantasy and Fugue in C minor (BWV 562) and the Ricercar a 3 from the Musical Offering – but also many very short pieces, among them single movements from larger works. The selection seems somewhat arbitrary. The reason to include songs escapes me, and the very short keyboard pieces – which may have been intended as pedagogical material in the first place – would have come off much better in a kind of suite.

Then of course, there is the question of which instrument to choose for a particular work. For the time of the Bach sons, when different instruments existed side by side, it is usually not possible to say which is preferable. In one sense, this recording limps on two legs. The stylistic development of the music of the Bach family does not go hand in hand with the development of keyboard instruments.

The interpretations are generally good. In the Fantasy and Fugue, I would have liked a somewhat sharper articulation in the fantasy. The difference in registration between the fantasy and the fugue is also debatable (but opinions differ on this). I liked most the performances on the fortepiano. The instrumentalists deliver fine performances but play a relatively minor role. Marc Mauillon has a beautiful voice, but in Bist du bei mir – why this worn-out song again? – his embellishments are a bit stereotypical.

In short: I am not over-enthusiastic.

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

Contents: 
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Solfeggietto in C minor (Wq 117,2 / H 220)
Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749)
Bist du bei mir
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Duet for two keyboards in E flat (Wq 115,4 / H 613)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Trio sonata No. 3 in D minor (BWV 527) (two violins, bc)
Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, chorale prelude & chorale (BWV 691 & 434)
Fantasia and fugue in C minor (BWV 562)
Trio sonata No. 6 in G (BWV 530)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Sonata for keyboard in B flat (Wq 49,4 / H 32) (two violins, bc)
Lyda (Wq 202g,2 / H 737)
Phyllis (Wq 202c,2 / H 710)
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784)
Preludio in C minor (F 29 / BR WFB A 54)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV Anh II, 73; after JS Bach, BWV 639)
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Fantasia in D minor (F 19 / BR WFB A 22)
Johann Sebastian Bach
Fantasia in C minor (BWV 906.1)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Trio for keyboard, violin and cello in E minor (Wq 91,1 / H 531)
Johann Sebastian Bach
Musicalisches Opfer (BWV 1079):
Ricercar a 3