Bach, J S: Flute Sonata No. 5 in E minor, BWV1034

Sharon Bezaly has demonstrated her great gifts as a flutist on a number of recordings on BIS ranging from the concertos written for her by renowned contemporary composers, including Sofia Gubaidulina and Kalevi Aho, to the classic staples of the flute literature such as Mozart’s concertos and flute quartets. Along the way there has been a wealth of imaginatively programmed recital discs, focusing on the great flute sonatas as well as the French flute tradition.

On this disc, Bezaly visits the period in which the flute became established as a solo instrument in its own right. It was only in the eighteenth century that wind players began to specialize on flute rather than oboe or recorder and composers started writing specifically for it. This disc reflects these exciting developments in musical taste with a programme of six sonatas for flute and harpsichord, with and without the support of a bass instrument.

Bezaly has chosen to perform with London Baroque members Charles Medlam and Terence Charlston. The result is a highly enjoyable disc, which marries together the golden tones of Bezaly’s modern flute with the stylistic expertise of two of the most experienced musicians in the field of historical performance.

Emmanuel Pahud follows his release of newly composed concertos by Marc André Dalbavie, Michael Jarrell and Matthias Pintscher with a programme comprising the complete flute sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to the sonatas BWV 1020, 1030-1035 and the Trio Sonata BWV 1039, Pahud performs the popular Partita for Solo Flute in A Minor, BWV 1013. His partner, at the harpsichord, is the renowned period instrument soloist and conductor Trevor Pinnock.

With the juxtaposition of these two releases, Pahud, one of today’s most exciting and adventurous musicians, demonstrates his mastery of and sympathy for music composed nearly three centuries apart.

Bach is believed to have composed his flute sonatas BWV 1030-1035 between the 1720s and 1741, following the innovation of the transverse flute, the instrument that superseded the recorder. After Johann Joachim Quantz demonstrated the new instrument throughout Europe in the early 1720s, Bach celebrated its technical and expressive qualities and newly available tonal colours in this series of sonatas, which are among his best known chamber works. He also featured the flute in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and in the Benedictus of the Mass in B Minor.

The first three of the six sonatas, BWV 1030-1032, are three-movement obligato sonatas in which Bach wrote out the right hand notes to the accompaniment; BWV 1033-1035, by contrast, are continuo sonatas in four movements in which the composer provided only the bass line of the accompaniment. Jonathan Manson is the cellist in the continuo sonatas.

There is some debate over the provenance of the Sonata BWV 1020 in G Minor, which some believe was composed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, rather than by his father. C.P.E. Bach, however, gave the credit to his father. The sonata is played today by both flutists and violinists. Silvia Careddu is the second flautist in the Trio Sonata BWV 1039 in G Major, composed in 1720. The earliest work in Pahud’s programme is the Partita for Solo Flute BWV 1013, composed in 1718.

Emmanuel Pahud, Principal Flute of the Berliner Philharmoniker since the age of 22, with the exception of a year-and-a-half-long sabbatical, has also appeared as soloist with many of the world’s other leading orchestras under conductors including Abbado, Rattle, Zinman, Maazel, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Pinnock, Jordan and the late Mstislav Rostropovich. He gives recitals with pianists Eric Le Sage, Yefim Bronfman and Hélène Grimaud and performs jazz with Jacky Terrasson. Pahud appears regularly at the major festivals in Europe, North America and the Far East.

Since signing an exclusive solo recording contract with EMI Classics in 1996, Emmanuel Pahud has recorded a broad range of repertoire to wide critical acclaim. Sales of his CDs number in excess of 400,000 worldwide. His EMI discography is set to be one of the most significant contributions to recorded flute music. In addition to the Dalbavie, Jarrell and Pintscher concertos, other recent releases include the Nielsen Flute Concerto (and Wind Quintet) with the Berliner Philharmoniker/Simon Rattle and the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas (arranged for flute) and the Reinecke Flute Sonata with Yefim Bronfman.

A previous (2001) Bach recording with the Berliner Barock Solisten won Pahud the Echo Klassik award while Gramophone praised the “stylish performances, with excellent choices of tempo, awareness of the character of the dances … buoyant rhythms and beautiful shaping of phrases… very fine Bach playing, to be wholeheartedly recommended.”

Trevor Pinnock is an internationally acclaimed harpsichordist and conductor and a pioneer of historical instrument performance with The English Concert, an orchestra that he founded in 1972 and led for the next thirty years. He currently divides his time between conducting, performing as soloist and chamber musician and educational projects.

In 2008-2009, Emmanuel Pahud and Trevor Pinnock will perform the Bach sonatas in Japan, Korea, Europe (Vienna, Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen and London) and the U.S., including Carnegie Hall. Other 2008-2009 performance highlights for Pahud include European tours with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Marc Minkowski and with the Franz Liszt Kammerorchester, as well as the American premiere of the Dalbavie Flute Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi.

“Pahud’s playing is always crisp and stylish, whether in virtuoso display or in more tender passages where the flute traces a line of filigree delicacy.” The Daily Telegraph