SACDs - Bach, C P E

Jonathan Freeman-Attwood’s ‘A Bach Notebook for Trumpet’ is a celebration of the music of the famous Johann Sebastian and ten other lesser-known Bachs, re-imagined for the combination of trumpet and piano.

Bach specialist Daniel-Ben Pienaar has arranged music from a great uncle, close cousins, distant cousins, and five sons, all related to the great J. S. Bach in a wholly unique recital programme.

Aesthetic passions drive the repertoire and performance choices as the duo explore vocabularies not usually associated with trumpet and piano chamber music: brushing up against ‘period’ gesture, ornamentation and articulation, whilst also co-referencing less fashionable inspirations from the past, including those judged ‘romantic’ in coloration, whether in the use of the pedal, rubati or articulation.

Jonathan is an established authority on Bach interpretation, particularly as it challenges and refocuses historical  perspectives on ‘performance practices’ and how recordings of the past can influence current priorities and tastes.

As a trumpet player and recording artist, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has attracted plaudits from the press; his producing career has resulted in over 200 recordings and several awards including Diapasons d’Ors, eight Gramophone Awards and many nominations.

Jonathan broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3 and is in demand as an essayist for EMI, Warner, Deutsche Grammophon and other major record labels.

Daniel-Ben is active as a recitalist and chamber musician. He has received great acclaim for his interpretations of Bach’s keyboard music: ‘Pienaar produces a breathless, highly energised reading’ Gramophone on his Goldberg Variations.

The word liaison can be translated in many ways: affair, affinity, connection, link, relationship, union. The CDs in the Liaisons series each feature two particular composers, enabling us to explore their musical worlds, sources of inspiration and degree of influence. At the same time, the recordings reveal their most conspicuous differences and their common denominators. Some of these composers are not often heard together (for example D. Scarlatti & Bartók or C.Ph.E. Bach & Britten). However, when time barriers and stylistic differences are put aside, many similarities may be discovered: as if the dialect is different, but the language common. On the other hand, composers who we may imagine to be very similar and easy to combine in any programme (for example Schumann & Brahms), reveal a whole new world of diversity and contrast when heard together. Through a careful choice of composers and compositions on each CD, the Liaisons series offers a bright spectrum of colours, variety and dynamic range, challenging the listener anew with every release.

The present third volume combines the very few original works for piano solo by Benjamin Britten with C.Ph.E. Bach's Prussian Sonatas. Britten's pieces, in all their minimalism, "unusual purity" (Arvo Pärt), perfect clarity and sometimes even emotionally restricted formality, contrast with the emerging Sturm und Drang atmosphere of Bach's sonatas, with their freedom and variety of structural design, lucid style, delicate and tender expression, inventiveness and extreme unpredictability. Dejan Lazic

The bassoon comes out of the closet! The Galant Bassoon is a remarkable journey with three musicians of international acclaim as they rescue this reserved member of the woodwind section and place it, deservedly, in the spotlight. Virtuoso bassoonist from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Matthew Wilkie, showcases the colour and brilliance of his instrument in a sparkling and sophisticated collaboration with harpsichordist Neal Peres Da Costa and double bassist Kees Boersma.

A generous selection of six chamber pieces by JS Bach, Telemann and CPE Bach – with their melodic exuberance, dance-like rhythms, consoling adagios and virtuosic flights of display – provide the perfect vehicle for the imagination and flair of these players.

For 20 years, Matthew Wilkie has been Principal Bassoon of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, frequently performing as soloist with them. Neal Peres Da Costa is recognised as an expert in early music performance while Kees Boersma is Principal Bass of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

The Galant Bassoon references the galant style, a change from much of the complexity and ornamentation of the Baroque to a simpler, more classical approach epitomised by Telemann, C.P.E. Bach and others in their compositions and by much of the music in this recital.

C. P. E. Bach regarded the 1749 Leipzig early version of his Magnificat as one of his most important works. It contains all the elements which aesthetics of the time demanded of a large-scale sacred composition: nobility, polyphonic and concertante choruses, deeply-felt arias, and a great concluding double fugue. The festive music Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes was written during Bach’s later years as director of music in Hamburg.