Bach, C P E: Trio Sonata in G minor for viola da gamba and keyboard, Wq.88, H.510

This CD unites the composers CPE Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel in a distinctive programme combining viola da gamba and fortepiano.

The London Abel and the Berlin Bach marked the last flowering period of the viola da gamba. Rebeka Rusó studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels and with Paolo Pandolfo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and is currently one of the best known gamba players of her generation. She teaches at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Conservatory in Strasbourg. Sebastian Wienand studied harpsichord and fortepiano at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He is currently in great demand as a soloist, chamber music partner and continuo harpsichordist and has performed with renowned ensembles at national and international festivals. For a number of years now, he has cooperated regularly in opera productions as the musical assistant of René Jacobs.

The Father, the Son and the Godfather is a snapshot of a time when composers were offered a tremendous freedom in their choices of genres and styles and features three composers who knew each other well: J.S. Bach (the father), C.P.E. Bach (the son) and Georg Philipp Telemann (CPE’s godfather).

We thus get Johann Sebastian’s rigorous, intellectually demanding Sonata in B minor, ample examples of the elegant and tender Empfindsamer Stil of his son C.P.E., and in two Trio Sonatas a taste of Telemann’s ‘world music’

This is the first recording of Paradiso Musicale, an ensemble featuring the acclaimed recorder player Dan Laurin and made up of an unusual combination of instruments.