476 3394 BACHCOMPLETE SONATAS FOR

VIOLA DA GAMBA

AND HARPSICHORD

DANIEL YEADON

NEAL PERES DA COSTA

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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1685-1750

Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Obbligato Harpsichord

Sonata No. 1 in G major, BWV1027 [12’05]1 I. Adagio 3’192 II. Allegro ma non tanto 3’403 III. Andante 1’514 IV. Allegro moderato 2’58

Sonata No. 2 in D major, BWV1028 [15’33]5 I. [Adagio] 2’116 II. [Allegro] 4’017 III. Andante 4’518 IV. Allegro 4’10

Sonata No. 3 in G minor, BWV1029 [15’10]9 I. Vivace 5’270 II. Adagio 5’22! III. Allegro 4’09

Daniel Yeadon

Viola da gamba by Petr Vavrous, Prague (Czech Republic),2002, after Bertrand (early 18th century)

Neal Peres Da Costa

Double-manual French harpsichord by Andrew Garlick,Somerset (UK), after Goujon (early 18th century)

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sizes – soprano, alto, tenor, bass and great bass(violone). It is likely that the viol developed duringthe 15th century in Spain out of the vihuela orguitar, rather than the violin family. Although thebass viol looks similar to a cello, its features areclosely linked to the guitar. It has up to sevenstrings, is much lighter and thinner than a cello,has frets, and is tuned like a guitar in intervals ofa fourth with one major third in the middle. It’sheld between the legs without a supportingspike and is bowed with an underhand hold –palm facing upward – which produces in itscharacteristic push-pull bow stroke a vastlydifferent sound from the cello. It is capable ofproducing a wide tonal spectrum. It is oftencalled upon to produce sounds that are haunting,sombre, lamenting or sighing in quality –this it does with ease, creating an intimateatmosphere. But it can also produce strikinglypenetrating tones in flashy passageworkparticularly suited to its upper register.

The viol’s heyday was roughly between the 16thand the early 18th century and it was reveredthroughout Europe as an instrument for solo andconsort music as much as for accompaniment.There is vast repertory for it. It was oftenassociated with the rich and royal. By Bach’s erathe viol’s popularity had waned somewhat buthe certainly loved and exploited it not only inthese sonatas, but also in a host of other worksincluding the St John and St Matthew Passionsand various cantatas.

The harpsichord probably needs fewerintroductions than the viola da gamba. But forthose who are coming to this music for the firsttime: the harpsichord is a plucked keyboardinstrument that has a rich palette of soundsachieved by engaging and/or combining differentsets of strings and other devices. The art ofharpsichord playing lies in the player’s sensitivityto touch and control. The harpsichordist cannotvary dynamics (loud or soft sounds) or produceaccents by adjusting finger or arm pressure –the technique used in piano playing. However,an impression of dynamics and accent can becreated by the placement of notes a little earlieror later than notated or expected, or by holdingover certain notes or groups of notes. The lattertechnique produces wonderfully sumptuous andsophisticated resonances that perfume themusic. The harpsichord was indispensable forseveral centuries up to the second half of the18th century and it was one of Bach’s favouritekeyboard instruments. There is an extremelylarge repertory of solo and concerted chambermusic for the harpsichord. It was also crucial forthe provision of rhythmic, melodic and harmonicsupport in chamber and orchestral music, whichwas generally improvised by the harpsichordist.

The combination of viola da gamba andharpsichord is stunning. Their sounds are soentirely different. They are like chalk and cheese,and yet surprisingly, they complement eachother. In these three sonatas Bach exploits these

1 J.A. Scheibe, ‘Letter From An Able Musikant Abroad’ (1737), The Bach Reader, ed. H.T. David and A. Mendel (New York,1945), revised edn. (New York, 1966), 238.

The great man would be the admiration of

whole nations if he had more amenity, if he

did not take away the natural element in his

pieces by giving them a turgid and confused

style, and if he did not darken their beauty

with an excess of Art. (J.A. Scheibe, 1737)1

It is almost inconceivable that anyone at anytime could have had the temerity to be so criticalof J.S. Bach; such is his godly status today. Yet inhis own time, his compositional style was oftenjudged as overly learned, cluttered andoutmoded. While many of Bach’s contemporarieswere developing a new style that emphasisedmelodic invention with simplified harmonicsupport (style galant), producing music that wasinteresting and easily understandable for thegeneral public, Bach appears to have remainedlargely unswayed. Scheibe went on to describeBach’s works as ‘extremely difficult to play’, not least because they contained an over-proliferation of ornaments and graces –figurations that to his mind diminished the‘beauty of harmony’ and obscured ‘the melodythroughout’. More disturbingly for him, ‘all thevoices must work with each other and be ofequal difficulty, and none of them can berecognized as the principal voice.’ Altogetherrebellious, Bach flew in the face of modernity.He boldly celebrated the old, using richly layered

polyphony, complex and often rapidly changingharmonies, and established musical forms in anidiosyncratic fashion. Even today, the strength ofhis invention is mind-bogglingly fascinating andchallenging. But a further dimension to Bach’smusic lies in the technical and interpretativechallenges it often poses. Scheibe, who claimedto have heard Bach play, was amazed at histechnical prowess as a performer – the agility of his fingers and feet in all sorts of musicalacrobatics. Accordingly, Bach demanded ‘thatsingers and instrumentalists should be able to dowith their throats and instruments’ whatever hecould manage on the keyboard. Such demandscontinue to put performers to the test.

It is a love and admiration for his music that havedrawn Danny and me to Bach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord.There is something indescribably fascinatingabout them. They are exquisitely crafted withvery contrasting moods and textures. We arecompelled to perform them time and time again, to reassess our interpretation of them and to admire Bach’s genius.

Our journey with these extraordinary worksstarted many years ago when Danny decided toexpand his bowed-bass skills and take up thebass viol, also known as the viola da gamba. Theinstruments of the viol family come in various

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differences to maximum effect. His writingcreates a special sound world to which Dannyand I have become addicted.

The date of composition of these works remainsin question. Until fairly recently, it was thoughtthat they belonged to the period between 1717and 1723, during Bach’s employment at the courtof Cöthen. The current thinking, however, is thatthey were written at Leipzig between 1739 and1750. This was a period when Bach producedextraordinary chamber music, much of whichwas performed by the well-trained musicians ofthe famed Leipzig Collegium Musicum, which hedirected. He would probably have played theobbligato harpsichord part. And there were somevirtuoso viola da gamba players around whowould have done the works great justice. CarlFriederich Abel (1723-1787) was one. Heapparently studied with Bach and was highlypraised by Charles Burney for his completenessand perfection as a player, a virtuoso with arefined and delicate judgement. The other wasLudwig Christian Hesse (1716-1772) who workedwith Bach’s son C.P. E. Bach in Berlin and withwhom Bach would have become acquaintedduring his visits there in 1741 and 1747. Hessewas described as one of the greatest viola dagambists of the era, possessing dexterity,neatness and fire in his playing.2

Although the title ‘Sonatas for Viola da Gambaand Obbligato Harpsichord’ suggests a duobetween two instruments, these works are inreality trios or trio sonatas. But instead of havingtwo independent treble instruments accompaniedby a basso continuo group (for example bowedbass and harpsichord), Bach assigns one of thesolo parts to the viola da gamba and the other tothe harpsichordist’s right hand. The bass-lineaccompaniment is played by the harpsichordist’sleft hand. This distribution of the trio parts isconsistent throughout. Significantly, theharpsichord is relieved of its usual function in atrio sonata as a continuo instrument and isrequired to provide chordal continuo support onlyin a few bars in certain movements.

Like so many composers of the Baroque era,Bach often borrowed or adapted his own musicfor different needs. The Sonata in G major,BWV1027, is a fine example of this. It is certainlya reworking of an earlier trio sonata for twoflutes and continuo in G major, BWV1039(c.1720), which in turn may have come from aneven earlier work. The opening Adagio is anelegant dance in compound quadruple meter.Bach ends the movement with an unusually longand ghostly trill that resolves on the dominanttonality, creating a real feeling of suspense.Relief comes in the concertante Allegro ma nontanto movement that follows. This is a jaunty

triple-metre dance in the tonic key with intricatecontrapuntal writing. Here even the bass line isgiven important thematic material. Themovement is peppered with gorgeoussequential patterns. The austere E minorAndante that follows plunges the listener intoquite another world. With its arching figurationsand reinforced, repetitive bass, the movement isboth passion-like and contemplative. The finalAllegro moderato mixes strong fugal elementswith virtuosic episodes reminiscent of the Italianstyle of Arcangelo Corelli.

The Sonata in D major, BWV1028, shares asimilar structure to BWV1027 but has quite adifferent feel. There is disagreement as towhether this, too, is a reworking of earliermaterial or an original work for the combinationof viola da gamba and harpsichord. The openingmovement, without tempo indication, is a slowtriple-metre dance with delicate ornamentalfigurations that have a certain French quality, areminder of Bach’s cosmopolitan influences.Here again, the movement ends on thedominant tonality, creating a sense ofexpectation. The second movement in binaryform, also without tempo indication, is bothcharmingly galant in the vocal quality of theopening theme played in sixths, andrambunctious in its snappy left-hand figurations,arpeggios and chunky chordal writing. The B minor Andante that follows is another statelydance – a siciliana, with music that is simply

sublime. It is a mini-voyage, that is, however,epic in nature and other-worldliness. The finalAllegro in D major can only be described as aromp. It’s a concerto for both instruments, achance to show off.

With the Sonata in G minor, BWV1029, thelistener is taken to the world of the Italianritornello concerto form. The opening Vivace inquadruple metre has an almost relentlessrhythmic drive with the main theme repeated invarious guises interposed by episodic materialthat is often sequential in nature. One can hearthe interplay between tutti orchestra andsoloists. A similar effect is heard in the thirdmovement, a virtuosic dance that is frenzied andalmost macabre in nature. The middle movementis in French sarabande style but has an overlayof both complex Italianate and more simpleFrench ornaments. Compared with the outermovements the texture here is sparse, but themusic is unbelievably poignant – so much sothat it was used in the soundtrack of the tear-jerking film Truly Madly Deeply (1990).

We hope you enjoy this musical feast, averitable excess of art!

Neal Peres Da Costa

2 L. Robinson, ‘Preface’ to J.S. Bach Sonatas BWV1027-1029, ed. Lucy Robinson (London, 1987), iv.

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DANIEL YEADON

Daniel Yeadon has a worldwide career as a cellistand viola da gamba player; his repertoire rangesfrom Renaissance to contemporary. His regularchamber music collaborators in Australia includeNeal Peres Da Costa, Genevieve Lacey,Ironwood, Romanza, Kammer, Elision and TheCollective. He has appeared as soloist with theAustralian Brandenburg Orchestra, toursfrequently with the Australian ChamberOrchestra, plays every year with Pinchgut Operaand records regularly for ABC Classics. He ismuch in demand as a teacher and is currently alecturer at Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Originally from the UK, Daniel Yeadon readphysics at Oxford University and specialised inearly music performance at the Royal College ofMusic in London. For many years he was amember of the renowned period-instrumentensemble Florilegium; he later joined theFitzwilliam String Quartet, performing in majorvenues throughout the world and recording manyaward-winning CDs. Daniel Yeadon continues toappear as guest principal cellist with many of theperiod-instrument ensembles based in London,including the English Baroque Soloists and theOrchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

NEAL PERES DA COSTA

Neal Peres Da Costa is a performing scholarspecialising in historical keyboard instruments of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. WithFlorilegium, the internationally renowned period-instrument ensemble which he co-founded in 1991, he has performed in France,Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, North andSouth America, China and Australia.

He has performed with Emma Kirkby, NancyArgenta, James Bowman, Derek Lee Ragin,Michael Chance and Pieter Wispelwey, and withthe Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment,Academy of Ancient Music, Australian ChamberOrchestra, Sydney Symphony, Australian BachEnsemble, Salut! Baroque, Sydney PhilharmoniaChoirs, The Song Company, Sinfonia Australis,Orchestra of the Antipodes, Pinchgut Opera andthe Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Neal Peres Da Costa’s discography includesnumerous award-winning recordings withFlorilegium on the Channel Classics label, and19th-century music for clarinet and fortepianowith clarinettist Colin Lawson for ClarinetClassics. He is principal continuo player on manyABC Classics recordings; his album of Bachsonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord withRichard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon won the2008 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album.

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Currently, Neal Peres Da Costa is a lecturer inMusicology and Chair of the Early Music Unit atthe Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He wasfor many years a lecturer at the Royal Academyof Music and Trinity College in London, and in2000 was Artist in Residence at the Universityof Leeds. He has taught at international summercourses in Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic,and has given masterclasses, lectures andconcerts as part of the Barcelona Festival ofEarly Music.

Neal Peres Da Costa holds degrees from theUniversity of Sydney, the Guildhall School ofMusic and City University in London, and a PhDfrom the University of Leeds, researchingperforming practices in late 19th-century piano playing.

Executive Producers Martin Buzacott, Robert PattersonRecording Producer, Engineer and Mastering

Virginia ReadEditorial and Production Manager Hilary ShrubbPublications Editor Natalie SheaBooklet Design Imagecorp Pty LtdCover Photo Jesus Nicolas Sanchez /Photolibrary.comPhoto p8 Albert Comper

Recorded 16-19 June 2004 1, 3, 5-8 and 9-12 March 2006 2, 4, 9-! in the EugeneGoossens Hall of the Australian BroadcastingCorporation’s Ultimo Centre.

ABC Classics thanks Alexandra Alewood andKatherine Kemp.

� 2009 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.� 2009 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed inAustralia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, underexclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner ofcopyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion,public performance or broadcast of this record without theauthority of the copyright owner is prohibited.